Annulment Decision from the Constitutional Court Shaking Notaries
Official titleDecision of the Constitutional Court Dated 16/4/2026 and Numbered E: 2026/86, K: 2026/76
The Constitutional Court has annulled the article of the Notary Law that regulates the disciplinary penalties to be imposed on notary clerks and candidates but fails to clarify which sanction will be attached to which offense, finding it contrary to the principle of the rule of law.
Details of the Regulation
Examining the objection application made by the Ankara 20th Administrative Court, the Constitutional Court considered the first paragraph of Article 148 of the Notary Law No. 1512. In the article in question, although the disciplinary penalties (warning, reprimand, salary deduction, dismissal from the profession) to be applied to notary clerks and clerk candidates were enumerated, no legal framework was drawn regarding which disciplined behavior would be met with which penalty.
The Constitutional Court, in its reasoned decision, determined that failing to establish a reasonable and foreseeable link between the actions subject to sanction and the disciplinary penalties grants the administration an indefinite and arbitrary discretionary authority. It was concluded that this uncertainty is incompatible with the principles of 'certainty' and 'rule of law' guaranteed in Article 2 of the Constitution.
In light of these evaluations, the first paragraph of Article 148 and the second paragraph, which lost its applicability due to the annulment of the first paragraph, were unanimously annulled. In order to prevent the legal void created by the annulment provisions from harming the public interest, the Court ruled that the decision shall enter into force 9 months after its publication in the Official Gazette.
Questions You Might Have
- Will no disciplinary penalty be given to notary clerks at all after this decision?
- No, disciplinary practice has not been completely removed. However, because the existing uncertain rule was annulled, the GNAT must make a new legal regulation that clearly matches offenses and penalties within the 9-month period.
- Why was the entry into force of the decision postponed by 9 months?
- The immediate entry into force of the annulment decision would create a completely unregulated and unsupervised void in the notary organization. The Constitutional Court granted the legislative body (GNAT) a reasonable preparation period to make a new regulation in accordance with the law.
- Was the decision made unanimously?
- Yes, the decision was made unanimously with the participation of all members of the Constitutional Court, without any dissenting vote or dissenting opinion.
Key Terms
- Belirlilik İlkesi
- The rule that legal norms must be clear and explicit in a manner that individuals can guide their actions and foresee in advance what kind of consequence an action will entail.
- Somut Norm Denetimi (İtiraz Yolu)
- The procedure by which a local court brings the matter to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that the provision of the law applied during the hearing of a case is unconstitutional.
- Hukuk Devleti
- A state model whose all actions and transactions comply with the law, which provides legal security to its citizens, and is open to judicial review.
Where we posted this
Follow Turkish legal developments
REGAS analyzed all 19 items in the Official Gazette of 6 July 2026; we published only 3 of them here.
REGAS summarizes every change in the Turkish Official Gazette in plain language and notifies you.
The REGAS app is currently Turkish-only. If you would like English in the app, the best way to make it happen is to support the developer: get the app and just say so.
REGAS Commentary
This decision establishes a very important shield of protection for the disciplinary processes of all employees working in the administrative hierarchy, especially notary personnel. Administrations will not be able to impose arbitrary and disproportionate penalties on their employees due to acts that are not explicitly matched in the legal legislation. The GNAT needs to enact a new, fair, and foreseeable legal regulation within the 9-month period.