Director of Legislation Litigation of the Law and Human Rights Ministry Ardiansyah as the government’s proxy delivering a response to the judicial review petition of the Supreme Court Law, Tuesday (25/2) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.
JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The term of office for the president and vice president is different from that of the supreme justices. The term of office of president and vice president is regulated in the 1945 Constitution, while that of the supreme justices is regulated in the law. This was conveyed by the Director of Legislation Litigation of the Law and Human Rights Ministry Ardiansyah as the government’s proxy in the follow-up judicial review hearing of Law No. 3 of 2009 concerning the Second Amendment to Law No. 14 of 1985 concerning the Supreme Court on Tuesday (25/2/2020) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court.
"The Petitioner’s argument that the difference between the tenure of the president and vice president and the supreme justices is discriminatory is groundless. These are assumptions that cannot be accounted for legally, both in the state structure and in the Indonesian state government system," Ardiansyah stressed before the panel of justices led by Chief Justice Anwar Usman.
Also read: Petitioner of Supreme Court Law Challenges Term of Office of Supreme Court Justices
The Government confirmed that the tenure of president and vice president is regulated in Article 7 of the 1945 Constitution as an embodiment of the democratic system, so that the positions are political ones implemented in the provisions of Article 22E paragraphs (1) and (2) of the 1945 Constitution. Supreme justices are appointed and dismissed not periodically but based on retirement age because the regulation has been measured substantively based on legal requirements by lawmakers as an open legal policy.
"The term of office of the president and vice president cannot be compared to [that] of the supreme justices on the ground that the president and vice president are political positions, so that their term of office is adjusted to the period set out in the 1945 Constitution in accordance with the country’s democratic politics, so that [they] cannot be [dismissed only upon] retirement. Meanwhile, supreme justices are states official whose appointments are based on legal needs, so their term of office is adjusted to the state’s legal needs that can be determined by law as the realm of the legislative (open legal policy)," Ardiansyah said in relation to petition No. 2/PUU-XVIII/2020.
Ardiansyah also mentioned the limitation of the supreme justices’ term of office to 70 years is based on the trias politica principle, where the stated is divided into legislative, executive, and judicial powers. The term of office for president and vice president for five years is carried out with the general election system as the implementation of the political rights of citizens. Thus, the position is a political position based on the will of the people and is single and nationally elected in the interests of the people.
The Petitioner had previously 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.
Before concluding the session, Chief Justice Anwar reminded that the hearing would resume on Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 10:00 WIB to hear the statements of the House of Representatives and the Relevant Parties, that is, the Supreme Court, the Judicial Commission, and the Indonesian Judges Association (IKAHI). (Sri Pujianti/tir/LA)
Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti
Translation uploaded on 2/28/2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020 | 15:31 WIB 184