Principal Petitioner Aristides Verissimo de Sousa Mota after the material review hearing of Law No. 14 of 1985 on the Supreme Court, Tuesday (4/2) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another judicial review hearing of Law No. 3 of 2009 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 14 of 1985 on the Supreme Court (MA) on Tuesday (4/2/2020)in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. The case No. 2/PUU-XVIII/2020 was petitioned by Aristides Verissimo de Sousa Mota. 

In a hearing chaired by Chief Justice Anwar Usman along with =Constitutional Justices Wahiduddin Adams and Suhartoyo, the Petitioner argued that Article 7 and Article 11 of the Supreme Court Law were unconstitutional. In the second hearing, de Sousa Mota conveyed the revision to the petition including the addition of articles and paragraphs, touchstone, and arguments strengthened by expert statement. 

"The revision was carried out thoroughly. In this petition, I was not directly harmed. However, as a law-abiding citizen, I feel there had been issues," the Petitioner said.

The Petitioner clearly stated that he did not experience material losses due to the articles being reviewed, but he felt he had a moral responsibility to request for the examination of the law. At the hearing last Thursday (16/1/2020), Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo stated that there was a need for improvements both in terms of the legal standing, the reason for the petition, and the petitum which was still lacking in detail.

In the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner stated that the norms have caused discrimination because there are restrictions on the term of office of the president and vice president, but not to the Supreme Court justices. If a person is elected as a Supreme Court justice at the age of 45, then the person most likely will be in office for 25 years because the retirement age of the justices is 70 years. In the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court decide the term of office of Supreme Court justices for five years with a re-election for one more period. As such, the maximum tenure of Supreme Court justices would be 10 years. (Sri Pujianti/Tiara/NRA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti