Purwoko from the Law and Human Rights Ministry delivering government statement in the judicial review hearing of the Nationalization Law on Monday (7/5) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

The material review of Law No. 86/1958 on the Nationalization of Dutch-Owned Companies (Nationalization Law) was held once again by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday (7/5). The agenda of the hearing was to hear the Government\'s statement. However, it was postponed because the Government was not ready to give any statement.

The Head of Legal Aid of the Ministry of Finance Didik Hariyanto, who represented the Government, conveyed that in the hearing presided over by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Anwar Usman. "We have delivered a letter to Your Honor dated May 2, in which we requested that the President\'s statement that should have been read today, [to be read in a few weeks]," he said in response to petition No. 27/PUU-XVI/2018.

The session was also scheduled to hear the statement of the House, but the House was unable to attend due to overlap with House recess. The next session was scheduled to be on Monday, June 4, 2018 at 10:00 a.m.

The Executive Board of the West Java Christian Secondary Education Foundation (BPSMK-JB Foundation) had previously submitted a judicial review of Law No. 86/1958 on the Nationalization of Dutch-Owned Companies (Nationalization Law). The petition registered to the Constitutional Court Registrar as No. 27/PUU-XVI/2018 reviews Article 1 of the Nationalization Law on the nationalization of Dutch-owned companies. According to the Petitioner, Article 1 of the Nationalization Law harms the constitutional rights of the Petitioner. The Petitioner is the legal owner of the land or assets owned by Het Cristhelijk Lyceum (HCL) located at Jalan Ir. H. Juanda No. 93, Bandung. However, since 1991 to 2018, the Petitioner faced a lawsuit from the Christian Lyceum Society claiming to be the owner of the HCL assets that had been nationalized by the government when, in fact, the Ministry of Finance has relinquished state control over the foreign-owned land assets to the BPSMK-JB Foundation on December 19, 2003.

However, Article 1 of the Nationalization Law has caused the foundation to often facing legal challenges. Article 1 of the Nationalization Law does not provide legal certainty for nationalized assets formerly owned by HCL that have been nationalized and transferred from the state to the Petitioner. Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court declare the word "free" in the provision of Article 1 of the Law on Nationalization not having a conditionally unconstitutional binding force as long as it is not interpreted as "Free from all legal demands and lawsuits." (ARS/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)