Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Saldi Isra giving public lectures at the Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta, Wednesday (5/25/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Yuwandi.

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Wednesday, May 25, 2022 | 15:51 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Saldi Isra gave public lectures on “The Constitutional Court in the Dynamics of the State Administration” on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at the Law Faculty of the Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta (FH UMS). The event was collaboration between the Constitutional Court (MK) and the faculty.

Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo first explained the authorities of the Constitutional Court: reviewing laws against the 1945 Constitution wthe first and last level with decisions that are final, deciding on authority disputes between state institutions whose authorities are granted by the Constitution, deciding on the dissolution of political parties, and deciding on disputes over general election results.

“The Court is also obligated to decide on the House’s opinion on an alleged violation of law committed by the president and/or vice president pursuant of the Constitution. The violation referred to and regulated in the provisions of Article 7A of the 1945 Constitution is the violation of the law in the form of treason, corruption, bribery, other criminal acts, or disgraceful acts, and/or [if they] no longer fulfill the requirements for president and/or vice president as referred to in the 1945 Constitution,” he said to the participants onsite.

In addition, after the Constitutional Court Decision No. 97/PUU-XI/2013, which lent to Article 157 paragraph (3) of Law No. 10 of 2016, the Court has the authority to rule on disputes over the results of the election of governors, regents, and mayors. He revealed that the Court’s authorities had undergone changes from what was mandated by the 1945 Constitution. “Today the Court can also rule on the judicial review of [government regulations in lieu of laws (perppu)],” he explained.

He added that laws can be reviewed formally and/or materially. Formal judicial review concerns lawmaking procedures and other matters outside of the material review. Material judicial review concerns the content of articles, paragraphs, or part of laws that are deemed in conflict with the 1945 Constitution.

Varying Opinions

Meanwhile, Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra said that the Court was different from other courts. “In the Constitutional Court, the nine constitutional justices are on the same panel. So, whatever the Court is to decide, it must be the result of discussion of the nine justices. In an ordinary court, there are three (judges). If there is anything extraordinary, it can be [ruled by] five (judges). It means that it is simpler when three people are looking for an endpoint than nine people. Or five people compared to nine people,” he said.

This, he added, gave rise to many different opinions from each of the justices. In an ordinary court, there are at most three opinions because there are three judges. Meanwhile, in the Constitutional Court, there could be nine opinions. They are then discussed repeatedly until they finally lead to a decision.

“At the beginning there are nine opinions, so we can imagine how much time it will take to get to the next. So there the opinion of the majority of justices (five) that can be used as the Court’s opinion,” he said. 

Writer       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 5/27/2022 10:47 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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