The Administrative Procedure Law No. 2577 [APL] Article 7 sets forth the general time limits for filing lawsuits against administrative acts, and in cases where no separate time limit is provided in special laws, the time limit is sixty days in the Council of State and administrative courts, and thirty days in tax courts.

In practice, in cases where administrative acts are challenged with requests for annulment and the time limits for filing lawsuits are not specified, it has been observed that there are differences in the decisions of the chambers of the Council of State regarding whether or not the special and general time limits for filing lawsuits should be applied when calculating the time limit for filing a lawsuit. The chambers have made different interpretations on this matter. This dispute between the chambers of the Council of State has been resolved by the Decision of the Council of State’s Unified Doctrine Board No. 2021/2 E. and 2022/1 K.

In the evaluation made by the Unified Doctrine Board of the Council of State:

• It was stated that the strict application of the special time limit for filing lawsuits made it difficult to access the court,
• With reference to the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court, it was emphasized that procedural rules should not be applied rigidly in a way that prevents access to rights, and at the same time, the procedural rules should not be applied in a way that disregards them by loosening them,
• It was argued that Article 7 of APL, which has not changed since its entry into force, is sufficiently clear and understandable, and given its long-standing application, there is no doubt about its recognizability,
• It was noted that the provisions that foresee special time limits for filing lawsuits in administrative jurisdiction are quite numerous and scattered,
• It was stated that, pursuant to Article 40/2 of the Constitution, imposing the consequences of the failure of the administration to fulfill its obligations on the related persons is not a fair solution, and furthermore, predicting that a lawsuit can be filed without any time limit, contrary to Article 125 of the Constitution and Article 7 of APL, is also not a fair solution.

With these justifications, it was ruled that if the time limit for filing a lawsuit is not specified in an administrative act subject to a special or general time limit for filing a lawsuit, the general time limit under Article 7 of APL will be applied.

To access the related decision, click here.