The judicial review hearing of Article 10 of Law No. 39 of 2008 on State Ministries on Thursday (27/2) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) should have been holding the third judicial review hearing of Article 10 of Law No. 39 of 2008 on State Ministries on Thursday (27/2/2020) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. The fifth hearing of case No. 80/PUU-XVII/2019 was petitioned by Forum on Law and Constitutional Studies (FKHK) Chairman Bayu Segara. However, the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government who should have delivered their statements once again requested the session to be postponed.

"Because the House requests for another delay and the president\'s proxy also sent a letter requesting a delay, today\'s hearing cannot continue. Then the session will resume on Thursday, March 12, 2020 to listen to the House\'s statement and the Government\'s additional statement as well as the experts for the Petitioner and the Government," said Chief Justice Anwar Usman. 

The Petitioner challenges constitutionality of the inauguration of 12 deputy ministers by President Joko Widodo on October 25, 2019. He believes it contradicts Article 1 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution as the deputy minister office is subjective without a clear position, authority, and function in the State Ministry Law. The function of deputy ministers is regulated by a presidential regulation, which goes against the constitutional rules, in which the duties and authority of the deputy minister are subject matter of the law. The State Ministry Law does not regulate the duties, function, and authority of deputy ministers at all. This certainly can lead to arbitrariness, by giving authority to deputy ministers without involving the House as the people\'s representatives. The Petitioner also mentioned that the appointment of 12 deputy ministers was a subjective act of the president, who did not have a clear reason for urgency. The Petitioner considered the deputy ministerial position to have resulted in the state having to prepare special facilities, which only wasted the state budget. (Sri Pujianti/Annisa/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Translation uploaded on 2/27/2020