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Yesterday (June 28) saw two critical developments regarding the people who were discharged from public service by Statutory Decrees.

As reported by Deutsche Welle Türkçe, the Constitutional Court has found it against the Constitution that people are discharged from public service in case of their "membership of" or "affiliation with" the structures, entities and groups that are found by the National Security Council (NSC) to be acting against the national security of the state.

In a unanimous decision, the Constitutional Court has annulled the expressions of "membership" and "affiliation" in the related law.

The top court has concluded that "in the ordinary period", the judicial bodies, rather than the National Security Council (NSC), shall give a judgement as to whether a person is considered a member of an illegal entity or not. The related provision is against the principle of the presumption of innocence, according to the Constitutional Court ruling.

The Republican People's Party (CHP) previously filed a lawsuit and demanded the annulment of some articles of the Law on Accepting the Statutory Decree no. 7086 as to Taking Some Measures as part of the State of Emergency, which was passed into law by the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) on February 6, 2018.

Whom does the ruling apply to?

However, it is not certain whether the people discharged from public service on these grounds will be reinstated or not.

Speaking to Deutsche Welle, Constitutional Court sources say that the ruling will not have retroactive effect and the current discharges are still valid. On the other hand, Constitutional Law Prof. Şule Özsoy Boyunsuz from Galatasaray University Faculty of Law is not of the same opinion. According to Özsoy Boyunsuz, this view of the top court is not absolute:

When it is understood like this, it may lead to a violation of other basic principles of law and rights. While it is acknowledged that final judicial and administrative decisions are not to be affected by such an annulment in principle, it needs to be acknowledged that retroactivity will be the case especially in legislation that leads to the violation of some most basic absolute rights such as the legality of crimes and punishments and the presumption of innocence and in cases in favor of the person.

125 thousand people discharged

After the State of Emergency was declared on July 20, 2016, 30 Statutory Decrees were issued. These Decrees were accepted and passed into law at the General Assembly of the Parliament later on.

As part of the Statutory Decrees issued within the frame of the State of Emergency, which ended on July 17, 2017, a total of 125,678 people were discharged from public service. While the Presidency's State of Emergency Investigation Commission rejected 101,058 applications, it accepted 14,072. 11,544 applications are reportedly still in examination.

Discharged employee back to work

On the other side, lawyer Hüseyin Aygün made a statement on his Twitter account yesterday (June 28) and announced that his client Güldalı Kocaoğlu, who was discharged from public service by the Statutory Decree no. 679, started working again at the Social Security Institution (SGK) following the ruling of the Ankara 22nd Administrative Court.

Tüm KHK'lılar için bir zafer..
679 sayılı Kanun Hükmünde Kararname (KHK) ile kamu görevinden ihraç edilen müvekkilim Güldalı Kocaoğlu, Ankara 22. İdare Mahkemesi'nin kararından sonra bu sabah Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu'ndaki (SGK) görevine geri döndü; mesleğine yeniden başladı.. pic.twitter.com/I59ZiwKVPS

— Hüseyin Aygün (@HuseyinAygun62) June 28, 2021

(KÖ/SD)