Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh reading out the Court’s legal considerations at the ruling hearing of the material judicial review of Law No. 36 of 2014 on Health Workers, Wednesday (12/15/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

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Wednesday, December 15, 2021 | 20:09 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the judicial review petition on the provision on the competency assessment of medical students in Article 21 of Law No. 36 of 2014 on Health Workers for case No. 56/PUU-XIX/2021, which was filed by the Association of Indonesian Private Medical Schools (HPTKES Indonesia).

“[The Court] adjudicated to reject the Petitioner’s petition in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman at the virtual ruling hearing on Wednesday, December 15, 2021.

Also read: Provision on Competency Assessment for Medical Students Challenged

In its legal considerations, read out by Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh, the Court detailed that the Petitioner asserted that Article 21 paragraph (7) of Law No. 36 of 2014 had allowed the competency assessment of medical students be re-regulated or changed only through a ministerial regulation, without any change in the law on which it is based, when the assessment was an integral part of the authority granted to medical schools.

The Court stated that the issuance of a ministerial regulation based on the delegation of authority from a higher legislation, in casu the a quo law, was justified as long as it only serves to implement the higher legislation. This is possible because not all matters can be regulated in a law. Article 21 paragraph (7) of Law No. 36 of 2014 delegates to the education minister the formation of a regulation on the implementation procedure of the competency assessment.

This regulation, the Court asserted, is important because aside from implementing the mandate of the a quo law, it is also required in order to regulate technical matters in relation to the national assessment in order to maintain a uniform standard and procedure, which leads to legal certainty.

In addition, Justice Foekh added, the substance of the a quo ministerial regulation must be in line with Law No. 36 of 2014 and cannot violate it, not to mention create a new legal norm that is not regulated in the law that mandates its issuance.

“In relation to that, if there is any ministerial regulation that the Petitioner deem in violation of Law No. 36 of 2014, especially in relation to the implementation of the competency assessment as referred to in Article 21 paragraph (7) of Law No. 36 of 2014, it is not within the Court’s jurisdiction,” he said.

Therefore, based on the aforementioned legal considerations, the Petitioner’s assertion was declared legally groundless.

Also read: HPTKES Indonesia Revises Petition on Health Workers Law

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner argued that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) had misinterpreted Article 21 of the Health Workers Law, which lead to the violation of the Petitioner’s constitutional rights. Kemendikbudristek issued the Decree of the Minister of Education and Culture No. 755/P/2020 on August 20, 2020, which entered into force on May 4, 2020 as a derivative of Permendikbud (Regulation of Minister of Education and Culture) No. 2 of 2020 on the Procedure for Implementing Student Competency Assessment in the Health Sector, which is a derivative of Article 21 of the Health Workers Law. With the Permendikbud in place, currently the graduation of medical students is determined through a competency assessment by the National Health Students Competency Board.

They also argued that the mandatory competency certification to finish studies restricts students to move up on the following step, be it a higher level of studies or work. Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court declare Article 21 of the Health Workers Law unconstitutional insofar as interpreted as ‘based on Permendikbud No. 2 of 2020’ and ‘the universities does not play a role in determining the students’ graduation in the competency assessment.’

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Fitri Yuliana
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 12/17/2021 11:44 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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