The Constitutional Court’s Decision on Electronic Notifications
On 22/09/2025, the decision of the Constitutional Court of Türkiye (the “Court”) was published in the Official Gazette numbered 33025. The Court rejected the annulment request concerning the rule stipulating that an “electronic notification shall be deemed served on the fifth day following its delivery to the addressee’s electronic address.”.
The case originated from an application by the Ankara 73rd Labour Court, which challenged the phrase “…on the fifth day following its delivery…” in Article 7/a of the Notification Law No. 7201. The referring court argued that the rule unnecessarily prolongs proceedings, violates the principle of equality and has become redundant in light of technological developments.
In its review, the Court referred to its earlier decision on a similar provision in the Tax Procedure Law (File No. 2018/144, Decision No. 2019/72, dated 19 September 2019) and underlined that there was no reason to depart from its previous case law.
In the reasoning of the decision, the Court emphasized that:
- - The legislature considered that a certain period may be necessary for the addressee to become aware of notifications not made physically,
- - The provision does not introduce any distinction between recipients and therefore does not violate the principle of equality,
- - Determining a five-day period falls within the legislature’s margin of discretion,
- - Allegations that the rule unnecessarily prolongs proceedings fall within the scope of “policy review,” which is beyond the jurisdiction of constitutional review.
Accordingly, by a majority, the Court ruled that the provision is not unconstitutional.
In the dissenting opinion, it was argued that the time limit should start when the notification is actually opened and read. The dissenting opinion also pointed out that automatically adding an additional five days for each electronic notification served during the proceedings unnecessarily delays trials and prevents them from being concluded within a reasonable time.
With this decision, it is expected that courts will no longer base their time-limit calculations on the date when an electronic notification is actually opened and read.
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