Onur Cantimur, Vice President of the Association of the Hearing Impaired and their Families (IED), filed a lawsuit against the Social Security Institution (SGK) Presidency, which did not cover the entire fee for the hearing aid he had to use. With the lawsuit filed by Cantimur, the court made an exemplary decision for the hearing-impaired and ordered SGK to pay the entire device fee.
Hearing-impaired Cantimur bought the hearing aid for 22 thousand 500 TL. However, SGK did not cover 10 thousand 500 TL of the device fee. Cantimur, who stated that he applied to SGK and asked for the refund of the 10 thousand 500 TL fee he had to pay for the device, but this request was rejected and then filed a lawsuit against SGK.
The Istanbul 4th Administrative Court decided to reject the case because "there is no illegality in the action in question". However, Cantimur did not give up and appealed this decision. The Istanbul Regional Administrative Court, on the other hand, made a precedent decision for all hearing-impaired people. In the court decision, it was stated that "10 thousand 500 TL of the device price paid by the plaintiff, together with the legal interest, shall be taken from the defendant administration and given to the plaintiff".
JUSTICE FOUND
Onur Cantimur, Vice President of the Hearing Impaired and Their Families Association, told BirGün that he was happy with the decision and said:
“Although it took a long time, it is gratifying that justice has been served. In particular, we received many applications from our association to file a lawsuit on this issue. This decision will be a precedent. Knowing the procedure well in the pursuit of justice is of great importance, and I would like to state that non-governmental organizations should act based on rights and provide advocacy training. I advise device users and families who want to sue to be determined until the end.
If my appeal had been negative, I would have continued to fight by going to the European Court of Human Rights after exhausting all domestic remedies in our country.”
* News source: Birgün Newspaper-Oktay Evsen
