In short
If the court returns the indictment, the prosecution is not treated as started. The return is not an acquittal. Article 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure puts an examination window of fifteen days from the date the indictment and the investigation papers were given to the court. The legal characterisation of the offence is not a ground of return on its own. Reading the act, the charge, and the evidence list line by line is not told in this article.
The date the papers were given to the court
The name of the court stands at the top of the return decision. Under the name, the investigation number and the merits number, if there is one, are in separate boxes. The two boxes are not read in each other’s place. The day the window started is the date the indictment and the investigation papers were given to the court. This date is looked for inside the decision, or in the record entered on the papers. If there is no record, the window is not built from this page.
The fifteen days do not run as the period for an answer of the person who received the indictment. The day is counted from the date the papers were given to the court. If the outgoing date of the service envelope is not the date of giving to the court, the window is not started from the envelope. The envelope can show the day the decision reached you. The day of reaching does not take the place of the day of giving. If the two dates stand separately on the paper, both stay on their own lines.
The court examines the investigation papers in this window. The product of the examination is the return decision, or that a return was not given. If the examination was made, its trace stands in the court’s decision. If there is no decision, the examination is not treated as made. Oral news that “it went to the court” does not build the date of giving.
In a return decision given in Ankara as well, the authority is the prosecution or the court in the heading of the paper. If another province is written in the heading, the step follows that heading. The name of the prosecution and the name of the court may not stand on the same line. The one who gave the return decision is the court in the heading. The one who drew the indictment up is the prosecution. The two institutions are not mixed.
The gap written in the return decision
If the court sees a gap or an erroneous point, it returns the indictment by stating that point. The point that is stated stands in the ground section of the decision as a sentence or as a heading. The reader looks for the name of the point that was returned in this section. If the point is not written, the reader does not put a name. If the sentence “there is a gap” does not carry the name of the thing that is missing, the name is not completed.
If the ground counts more than one point, each point is its own sentence. The first point is not read in place of the second point. A gap that is not counted is not treated as later added to the decision. The result sentence of the decision writes that the indictment was returned. If there is no result sentence, a return is not assumed. The signature is the signature of the judge who gave the decision. If the signature line is empty, a signature is not added.
The point that was returned can be the absence of a document in the investigation papers, the emptiness of a line in the indictment, or the papers being sent to the court incomplete. Which point it is is read from the sentence in the decision. If the sentence gives a document name, that name is looked for. If there is no name, a document is not invented. How the papers accumulated is in the article on a prosecution investigation. The summons sits under a prosecution summons, the statement under before giving a statement, and the complaint under I was complained of. These four subjects are not written again here as the ground of the return. The ground is the sentence in the decision.
The moment the prosecution did not start
The return decision does not put the file in the order of the prosecution. The person does not become the accused by this decision. The decision does not build a finding that the offence was not committed either. The writing “accused” is looked for in the indictment that was served. The reading of that paper is in the article on service of the indictment. The return decision does not take the place of that reading.
The prosecution can draw the indictment up again by curing the gap or the error written in the decision. This text does not put a day for the drawing up again. The drawing up again does not show that the first return took the place of an acquittal. A new date and a new drawing-up record stand on the second text. If there is no record, a second text is not assumed. The first return decision stands on its own date even if the second text comes out. The two papers are read side by side. One is not treated as having erased the other.
The return does not mean the person was never summoned to a statement. If the summons was made earlier, the summons paper stays in place. The return has not taken that summons back. The dates of the two steps are separate. If one of the dates is missing, the other is not written in its place.
The separate line of the characterisation
The court cannot return the indictment only because it sees the name of the offence as different. Article 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure does not count the legal characterisation as a ground of return on its own. The narration of the act and the name given to the act are separate lines. The argument about the name cannot be written as the sole ground of the return decision. If the ground of the decision writes only that the name of the offence changed, this sentence does not stand on its own as a ground of return. The reader does not join this sentence with another gap. If another gap is not written, it is read as not written.
If the gap or the error is a point other than the characterisation, that point appears in the decision. The reader does not put a name on a point that does not appear. Finding the name of the offence wrong is not a route that produces a return decision by the person’s own petition. The return is the decision the court gave in the examination window. The person’s objection petition does not take the place of this window. If the petition is in hand, the petition is read by its own heading. If the heading is not a return decision, it is not counted as a return decision.
Being treated as accepted
If a return decision is not given in the window, the indictment is treated as accepted. Acceptance is the moment the prosecution opened. Acceptance is not a conviction. Acceptance is not an acquittal either. A person who has a return decision in hand does not paste the acceptance sentence onto that person’s own decision. The trace of the acceptance is looked for in the absence of a return decision, and in the acceptance record in the file. If there is no record, acceptance is not assumed. If there is a return decision, the acceptance sentence is not added to this decision.
The indictment treated as accepted is read together with the piece of service. The piece of service is not the subject of this return decision. The piece is the record that the indictment reached you. If the return decision was served on you, the annotation of that service is on the return decision. The date on the annotation is the day the return decision reached you. A new period is not derived from this date. The fifteen days are tied to the date the papers were given to the court. The annotation does not change that date.
If the indictment that was drawn up again is accepted, what is read is the new text. Whether the gap in the old return decision was cured in the new text is looked at from the relevant line of the new text. If the line is still empty, the gap is not treated as closed. If it is not written that it was cured, it is not assumed to have been cured.
The service annotation of the return decision
If the return decision was notified to you separately, the annotation of the notification is the back of the decision, or a separate minute. On the annotation, the date of service, the name of the person served, and the signature are looked for. The date is the day the decision reached you. A new examination window is not derived from this date. The fifteen days are tied to the date the papers were given to the court. The annotation does not change that date. If there is no signature, the ground line is read. If there is no ground either, service is not assumed to have been made. If the minute is not in hand, news that “it was returned” does not build the service.
If the names of more than one person stand on the annotation, each name is its own line. If there is no line belonging to you, your service is not treated as made. Service made on the attorney is read together with that writing if that person’s name stands in the power of attorney or in the appointment writing. If there is no writing of authority, service on the attorney is not completed as your service. If the postal record and the annotation show a different date, the two dates stand separately. One is not written in place of the other.
The judge’s signature on the last page of the decision and the signature on the service annotation are separate. One shows that the decision was given. The other shows that the decision reached. If one is missing, the other does not fill it. If both signatures are empty, the gap is not closed by an oral account.
The page on which the annotation is found may not be the last page of the decision. If the minute is a separate leaf, the decision number is looked for on the leaf. If the number is not the same as the number on the return decision, another service may have got mixed in. If it is not the same, the two papers are kept separate. If it is the same, the annotation is the notification of this return decision. If the annotation writes that it could not be served, the reason line is read. The reason can stand as the address being closed, or as the person not being at that address. If there is no reason, a ground of the failure of service is not added. If there is a second attempt at service, its date also stands on the same minute, or on a new annotation. If there is no new annotation, a second attempt is not assumed.
Conclusion
The return is an examination decision that does not start the prosecution. It is not a judgment of acquittal. The fifteen days are the court’s window running from the date the papers were given to the court. The characterisation is not a ground of return on its own. If the point that was returned is written in the decision, that point is read. If the full text of the return decision is standing, the assessment is made over that text through contact. The general place of the court’s examination is the criminal law page. The examination window is inside Article 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure No. 5271.