The Constitutional Court rejecting the entire judicial review petition of Wednesday (4/20/2022). Photo by Humas MK/BPE.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2022 | 17:34 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The entire judicial review petition of Law No. 20 of 1947 on the Regulation of the Appellate Court in Java and Madura was rejected by the Constitutional Court (MK) at a ruling hearing on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

“[The Court] adjudicated to reject the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman reading out the verdict of Decision No. 22/PUU-XX/2022.

The Petitioner argued that the ambiguity of Article 7 paragraph (1) of the a quo Law showed that the state had deprived the appellant and respondent of human rights and disregarded those rights in the submission of the statement and counter-statement of appeal, thus violating Article 28I paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution.

The Court considered that the article emphasized that a statement and counter-statement of appeal were not mandatory when filing an appeal, but it regulated the deadline for filing an appeal or a cross-examination. Therefore, the Court was of the opinion that the article had provided legal certainty as well as the acknowledgement and protection of human rights and citizens’ constitutional rights, pursuant to Article 28I paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution.

Also read: Zico Simanjuntak Questions Ambiguity of Provision on Appeal

The Petitioner’s question of the lack of deadline in appeals, in this case the submission of a counter-statement, showed the weakness of the current civil procedural law, which could not catch up to the times, thus violating the principles of swift and simple trial. The Court was of the opinion that an appeal without the formal requirement of statement and counter-statement of appeal would in fact accelerate the filing of appeals at the high court or for retrial because then the documents could be sent swiftly by the first-level court to the appeal court or for retrial without any such requirement.

Therefore, the matter in fact actualizes simple, swift, and economic trial as emphasized in Article 2 paragraph (4) of Law No. 48 of 2009 on the Judicial Power, because the start of an appeal would not depend on whether or not a statement and counter-statement of appeal exists. As such, if an appeal examination has commenced and the high court received such statements, they would be considered if the appeal has not been decided.

Based on the aforementioned legal considerations, the Court was of the opinion that  Article 7 paragraph (1) of the a quo Law had provided legal certainty, recognition, fulfillment, and protection of human rights and the citizens’ constitutional rights of, pursuant to Article 28I paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution. Thus, the Petitioner’s entire arguments had no legal basis.

Also read: Zico Simanjuntak Revises Petition on Law on Appeal in Java and Madura 

Zico Leonard Djagardo Simanjuntak, challenged Article 7 paragraph (1) and Article 11 paragraph (3) of Law No. 20 of 1947 on the Regulation of the Appellate Court in Java and Madura.

At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, one of the Petitioners’ legal counsels, Asima Romian Angelina, conveyed several backgrounds of the petition. First, there was no clear deadline of the submission of the statement of appeal and the counter-statement of the statement of appeal in the appellate level in a civil case. The lack of regulation on this deadline, she added, had led to legal uncertainty that impaired legal values in the context of the Pancasila law-based state in realizing justice, certainty, benefit, order, peace, security and welfare for the wide public.

In addition, the a quo articles did not provide any clear regulation on appeal mechanism and any explanation of the procedure of appeal or re-examination in a court.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTbCPEdQlGU

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 4/21/2022 12:27 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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