The 8th Chamber of the Council of State made a remarkable decision regarding the deletion of disciplinary penalties of university students from the record.
In the lawsuit filed by a law faculty student studying at a foundation university in Istanbul, it was ruled that keeping disciplinary penalties in student files indefinitely was incompatible with the principles of legal security and certainty.
HE WANTED HIS CHEATING PENALTY TO BE DELETED FROM HIS REGISTRATION
A student studying at the law faculty of a foundation university in Istanbul was given a warning on June 28, 2019, on the grounds that he was cheating.
The student applied to the university on July 3, 2019 and requested that the disciplinary penalty be deleted from his record. However, the university rectorate rejected the application on August 9, 2019.
Thereupon, the student applied to the Ombudsman Institution (KDK) on September 17, 2019.
KDK made a recommendation in favor of the student on March 17, 2020.
The student re-applied to the university to implement the decision. The university did not accept the request, stating that the process of deleting disciplinary penalties from the record could only be implemented if a regulation was made by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).
Then, the student applied to YÖK and asked for legislation to be made to delete disciplinary punishments from the record.
Since YÖK did not respond to the application, the request was deemed to be implicitly rejected. The student also filed a lawsuit in the Council of State to annul the rejection proceedings.
Council of State: STUDENTS ARE LEFT UNPROTECTED
The 8th Chamber of the Council of State, which examined the case, determined that there is no clear provision in the legislation regarding how long the disciplinary penalties given to higher education students will be kept in the registry, under what conditions they will be used and when they will be deleted.
In the decision, it was stated that the lack of regulation in question left students unprotected in terms of disciplinary penalties.
It was emphasized that in disciplinary sanctions, a reasonable balance should be established between the student's action and the punishment given.
'IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO BE STORED FOR LIFETIME'
The Council of State's decision included the following evaluation regarding the indefinite retention of disciplinary penalties received by students due to mistakes they made in their educational lives:
"It is not understandable or acceptable that the disciplinary punishments that university students receive due to momentary mistakes are kept in student files for almost a lifetime."
The department pointed out that not clearly regulating the storage and deletion conditions of disciplinary punishments was against the principles of legal security and certainty.
HE SHOWED CRIMINAL RECORD RECORDS AS AN EXAMPLE
In the decision, it was reminded that there are legal regulations that allow even criminal record records to be deleted under certain conditions.
On the other hand, it was stated that not determining when and under what conditions the disciplinary punishments of university students will be deleted may have negative consequences for the students.
It was noted that keeping disciplinary penalties indefinitely and sharing them with other institutions and organizations upon request may lead to rejection of future applications by students and not being evaluated on equal terms with other candidates.
REJECTION PROCEDURES OF YÖK AND UNIVERSITY HAVE BEEN CANCELED
The 8th Chamber of the Council of State found it unlawful to implicitly reject the application made to the Council of Higher Education, requesting a regulation to delete disciplinary penalties from the record at the end of certain conditions and periods.
The department also ruled that the university's action rejecting the student's request to delete the disciplinary penalty from his record was not lawful.
The court decided to annul YÖK's implied rejection and the university's rejection by majority vote.
