The Case of Age Augmentation – Reduction

Age correction cases can be cited as examples of many legal problems, especially entry into military service, retirement, marriage, education, exams, receiving a lesser sentence and entering civil service.

Basic legislation in age correction cases There are procedural provisions on age correction in the Population Services Law No. 5490. 35 of the Law on Population Services.according to the article:

“No records of population registers can be corrected and no commentaries can be made to change the meaning of the records and the information they carry, unless there is a final court decision. However, material errors made during the registration of events in the family registers are corrected by the population directorate in accordance with the main document.”

In accordance with the relevant provision, it should be stated that it is possible to correct the records that seem incorrect, especially due to a material error, as a result of an application to the population directorates without filing a lawsuit.

In addition, in the second paragraph of Article 218 of the Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271, the,
“If there is a problem with determining the age of the victim or defendant in terms of criminal provisions at the prosecution stage, the court shall decide this problem by solving it in accordance with the procedure established in the relevant law. according to the regulation in the form of ” it seems that the legislator has given the criminal courts a special authority to correct the age at the stage of prosecution.

WHEN CAN AGE CORRECTION CASES BE FILED?
These cases can be filed at any time if the person was registered in the register from birth, and there is no statute of limitations.It is also stipulated that these cases can only be filed once. This is due to the fact that the real age of the person has been determined as a result of the lawsuit filed.
MATERIAL CONDITIONS TO BE SOUGHT IN THE AGE CORRECTION CASE
As a rule, in cases related to the change of name, the plaintiff must put forward a justifiable reason, but the legislator is not looking for any reason in terms of whether the case can be filed in age correction cases. However, strict conditions are still provided for the court to decide on an age change. Among such conditions are Dec:

A person should not be born in a hospital or maternity home. (The relevant institution records are final)
The external appearance of the person should not correspond to the age registered in the population.
The external appearance of the person must correspond to the age he declares
If a person wants to increase his age, a sibling should not be present at the declared age.
In order to reduce his age, one should not pretend to the population that he was born on the date before the writing.
The person should not have done age correction before.
The terms are as mentioned and all of these terms must be fulfilled. It can be said that the age difference between the plaintiff and his mother will also be taken into account by the court during the Deci-sion process. In addition, in some decisions of the Supreme Court, it is stated that the age correction case filed after the age of 25 should be dismissed because it will not be possible to determine the exact date of birth of the plaintiff for sure.
Hospital – Condition of Not being Born in a Maternity Hospital: A person who wants to change their age should not be born in any hospital or maternity hospital. The fact is that there is no official document record of the birth of the person who creates this requirement. If there is an official document on the birth or a record of it, the court will decide on the rejection of the case, which will depend on the data it has. Records related to childbirth can be checked from the hospital archives or upon application to the population directorates.

External Appearance Requirement (Physical Requirement): A person who wants to change his age must have a physical appearance appropriate to the age he declares. As a result of the evaluation and determination by the court that the physical image of the mentioned age is not relevant, the declaration will not be taken into account and the case will be dismissed. However, the fact that the age declared in judicial practice is 1-2 years different may be considered sufficient for the realization of this condition.

Condition Related to the Sibling: The presence of another sibling at the age declared by the person is one of the conditions requiring the case to be dismissed. Because in the trial, taking into account the mother’s pregnancy period, it is decided to dismiss the case because the birth of two people in the same period is not in accordance with the rules of logic and the usual flow of life, according to the rules of logic. In practice, if Dec plaintiff has a brother, requests for correction that do not correspond to a period of at least 180 days between the plaintiff and the date of birth of his brother may be rejected by the court.. If the twin brothers file a lawsuit, these cases will be combined.

Except for these mentioned conditions, in practice, the records found in the official institutions belonging to the plaintiff, (Records of starting school, records of military service.) important functions can be performed in the conclusion of the trial. Because if the person’s starting age is 7-8, it is not much of a problem, but if the declared age is 3-4 years old, it may be possible to dismiss the case by stating that “no one can start school at the age of 3”. It should also be noted that the plaintiff has the right to demand at any time the elimination of this inaccuracy on the basis of official hospital birth records.

Application of Bone Radiology Technology in the Trial

During age correction-replacement cases, the relevant court may request the determination of the plaintiff’s bone age. The determination of the bone age of the person is carried out through the Forensic Medical Institution, and according to the bone age, the court can make a decision on the request. One of the things that should not be overlooked is that the determination of bone age can be carried out no later than the person reaches the age of 25. Because after this age, the possibility of age detection is greatly reduced due to the fact that the bones do not develop. It is necessary to make a determination of the bone age before filing a lawsuit, and there is a legal benefit in filing a lawsuit according to the result that will be released.

THE JUDICIAL PROCESS IN AGE CORRECTION – CHANGE CASES

The proceedings proceed in the order prescribed below.

Opening of the case
The process of bringing a person’s population records, researching information about siblings and parents
Keeping the plaintiff present at the hearing and examining the external appearance
Requesting a “bone radiography” report on the need to be heard by the court.
Making a decision on the change of age together with the statement of witnesses and the available evidence in the file.
Writing a reasoned decision
Finalization of the court decision
If only the year of birth is written in the plaintiff’s population record, the first day of July as the month, if only the day is not written, the decision will be made based on the first day of that month.
If the person is an adult, his/her guardian or guardian should open the age correction case if he/she is not. In addition, age correction can be provided at the request of the public prosecutor to file a lawsuit.

One of the points to be considered is that these statements are of great importance in proving the use of witnesses in the trial and the date of birth.It is important that the witnesses who will be heard during the trial testify clearly and in a manner that does not give room for pause. As for the date of birth, they must clearly declare the date. It should also be noted that in cases of age correction-change, the case should be filed in an authorized and authorized court. 36 of the Law on Population Services on the issue of determining the competent court charged with age correction cases. It is regulated in the article:

The following procedures are followed for registration corrections made by a court decision:
a) Correction cases related to population records are opened by the Public prosecutors in the civil court of first instance in charge of the location of the settlement address, if necessary, which will be shown by the official department related to the persons requesting correction. Registration correction cases are considered and decided with the population manager or the population officer he will appoint.

These cases will be filed mainly in the Civil court of First Instance of the person’s place of residence. In this case, the population directorate located in the plaintiff’s settlement should be shown as the defendant. If a lawsuit is filed in an unauthorized and or unauthorized court, the case will be dismissed, which may lead to financial burdens and loss of time for the plaintiff. Because in the case of age change, the court takes into account the issue of authority on its own.

In the event that an age correction lawsuit is filed against the plaintiff while there is an existing criminal prosecution, this case should be dismissed for lack of duty. Because the determination of the actual ages of the accused or the victim has a special importance in terms of criminal trial law. The decision on the determination (except for the investigative stage) will be made by the criminal court conducting the prosecution.

Although there is no obligation to represent with a lawyer in the age correction cases that will be filed, it will be the right decision for the plaintiff to conduct the case with a lawyer in the age correction case so that the trial continues quickly and effectively and that the procedural actions can be performed correctly. In addition, requests for age correction are mainly included in the category of rights that are strictly related to the person, and if the cases are heard through a lawyer, the attorney’s power of attorney must necessarily have special authority in this regard. In case of filing a lawsuit with a general power of attorney, the court will give the plaintiff time to correct this shortcoming.

Duration of the Trial

This is how the process Dec in age correction-change cases proceeds, and in practice, the trial period can vary between 2-7 months depending on the intensity of the courts. If there is a request to determine the bone age by using bone radiology by the court, the trial period may be further extended by going to the Forensic Medicine Institution, examining and returning the file by the institution, as well as the processes mentioned.

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