Home > Justice and Law News > Unease in the high judiciary: 'If the 9th Judicial Package is enacted, they will receive thousands of liras less'

Unease in the high judiciary: 'If the 9th Judicial Package is enacted, they will receive thousands of liras less'

Honorary Member of the Court of Cassation Seyfettin Çilesiz has reacted to the regulation included in Article 12 of the 9th Judicial Package. Çilesiz stated, "If the article is enacted in this form, members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State will likely receive their salaries with a shortfall of around 10,000 liras, or perhaps even more, starting from August."

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Honorary Member of the Court of Cassation Seyfettin Çilesiz penned an article drawing attention to the loss of rights of high judiciary members.

In a post he shared on X, he drew attention to the 9th Judicial Packageand called for the prevention of these losses of rights.

Çilesiz stated, "I hope and wish that while this proposal is being discussed in the Parliamentary commission or the General Assembly, it will be corrected by finding a solution so that members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State, as well as judges and prosecutors whose granted rights are being taken back, will not be left trapped 'between their wallets and their consciences'" adding that stated the following: 

"BEING TRAPPED BETWEEN THE JUDICIARY, THE WALLET, AND THE CONSCIENCE!

Some may remember. In a speech at the opening of a judicial year, one of the Honorary First Presidents of the Court of Cassation, Mehmet Uygun, used the metaphor of "being trapped between the wallet and the conscience" to draw attention to the inadequacy of the salaries of judges and prosecutors serving in first-instance and high-level judicial bodies. 

With Law No. 7447, enacted in March 2023, a legal regulation was introduced to pay an additional monthly compensation to first-class judges and prosecutors, as well as to the presidents, members, and retirees of high judicial bodies, calculated by multiplying a coefficient of 15,000 for the former and 40,000 for the latter by the civil servant salary coefficient. Claiming that this regulation violated the constitutional principle of equality, the Ankara 25th Administrative Court  filed an annulment lawsuit with the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court, on the other hand, ruled that the difference between the 15,000  coefficient for first-class judges and the 40,000  coefficient for members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State was  not reasonable or proportional, and on the grounds of the Constitution's  finding it contrary to the principle of equality  and decided for its annulment. It had granted the legislator a 6-month period to make a new regulation. This period expires at the end of July. During this period, the payment of additional compensation based on the figures specified in the law continued. 

3 OPTIONS

The legislator could have chosen one of three options while making the new regulation in accordance with the Constitutional Court's decision.

Option 1: To apply this indicator figure (15,000) instead of the 40,000 indicator figure currently being given to members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State, based on the 15,000 indicator figure given to first-class judges and prosecutors,  to implement,

Option 2: To increase the indicator figures of first-class judges and prosecutors slightly, and to decrease the 40,000 indicator figure of the members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State slightly, bringing the ratio between them to a reasonable level in accordance with the Constitutional Court's decision, 

Option 3: To set the indicator figure of the members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State  could have regulated it by keeping the 40,000 figure and increasing the 15,000 indicator figure for first-class judges and prosecutors to bring it closer to this amount.

In fact, in the face of this cost of living and low purchasing power, the appropriate regulation that should have been made was to choose this option, that is, to bring the indicator figure for first-class judges closer to 40,000. For members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State, this situation would not impose a new burden on the budget because this allowance already exists in the budget and salaries were calculated accordingly. 

CALL TO THE COMMISSION AND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

However, when looking at the regulation regarding the indicator figures, which is the subject of this article, in Article 12 of the 9th judicial package submitted to the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, it is seen that those who prepared the proposal chose the first of the 3 options we just listed. That is, based on the 15,000 indicator figure previously given to first-class judges and prosecutors,  the 40,000 indicator figure currently given to members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State  is being reduced to the 15,000 figure. If the article is enacted in this form, members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State will likely receive their salaries with a shortfall of around 10,000 liras, or perhaps even more, starting from August. Of course, this situation also applies to retirees of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State. I hope and wish that while this proposal is being discussed in the parliamentary commission or the General Assembly, a solution will be found and corrected so that the members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State, as well as judges and prosecutors whose granted rights are being taken back, will not be left stuck 'BETWEEN THEIR WALLETS AND THEIR CONSCIENCES'.

Members of the Court of Cassation and the Council of State, whose granted rights are being taken away by using the Constitutional Court decision as an opportunity, cannot bring this issue to the agenda due to the nature of their duties. Although retirees have held meetings with some authorized bodies, they have not been effective. I hope that social media users will contribute to the solution of the problem by sharing this message from their own accounts."