Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih giving a public lecture for the law students of Gadjah Mada University, Friday (10/1/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Hamdi.

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Friday, October 1, 2021 | 17:51 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih gave a public lecture at the inauguration of the Smartboard Mini Courtroom of the Law Faculty of Gadjah Mada University (FH UGM), Friday, October 1, 2021. On the event entitled “The COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications on Legal Dynamics and Development,” FH UGM Dean Sigit Rianto, UGM constitutional law lecturer Andy Omara, and the Head of the AACC Permanent Secretariat and International Cooperation Department Sri Handayani were in attendance.

In her lecture before undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate law students of UGM, Justice Enny said that the long-lasting COVID-19 pandemic was unpredicted. When the president issued a perppu in response to it, many things changed, including the judiciary. The determination of the COVID-19 pandemic as a non-natural disaster affected how the Constitutional Court conduct its hearings.

The Court, she said, has the constitutional mandate to uphold justice and guard the citizens’ rights. So, in the midst of this uncertain situation, the Court must continue to strive to protect the citizens’ constitutional rights. Therefore, the Court cannot refuse petition lodged by citizens.

“The Court reinforced is technology to be able to conduct hearings on-site and virtually. In resolving the 2020 [regional head election/pilkada] disputes, the Court started conducting hearings virtually on Zoom application in addition to on-site hearings in the Court’s building by implementing strict health protocol following guidelines by the WHO and the Ministry of Health,” she revealed.

She also said that during the 2020 pilkada dispute hearings, only the petitioners, the respondent, the relevant parties, Bawaslu, and a maximum of two legal counsels could enter the courtrooms. Beforehand, they must submit a letter confirming a negative antigen test result that the Court provided. Meanwhile, the public could watch the hearings—the preliminary hearing, the testimony hearings, and the ruling hearing—live on the Court’s YouTube channel.

“Finally, all 151 cases were settled by the Court amid the constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court chose to hold the evidentiary and ruling hearings online so that all participants could appear before the Court from their respective residences,” she said before 300 participants through Zoom.

Procedural Law

Justice Enny then talked about how the procedural law for the judicial review in the Constitutional Court was adjusted to the pandemic situation. All participants appeared before the Court remotely while the constitutional justices presided over the hearings from the courtrooms. In order to support the hearings, the procedural law was revised to accommodate for the changes.

“The Court put this into the Constitutional Court Regulation No. 2 of 2021 on the Procedural Law for Judicial Review Cases,” she said.

Filing a petition, she added, can be done online through the Electronic Petition Information System (Simpel). Meanwhile, the participants can participate in the hearings virtually using Zoom. The hearings are accessible by public on the Court’s YouTube channel.

Writer           : Sri Pujianti
Editor          : Nur R.
Translator     : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/4/2021 17:42 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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