Constitutionality Review

Request for annulment of Article 230 §§ 5 and 6 of the Turkish Criminal Code for prescribing criminal sanctions for those who have married by arranging religious ceremony without performing a civil marriage and conducting such a religious ceremony, which is indeed a matter of private life and freedom of religion and conscience.

The Court found unconstitutional and therefore annulled the contested paragraphs as criminalising such acts and therefore imposing criminal sanctions constituted a disproportionate interference with the right to respect for private and family life and the freedom of religion and conscience in the absence of any necessity in a democratic society.