Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah giving a public lecture at the Law Faculty of Nusa Cendana University, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Thursday (6/2/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Agung.

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Friday, June 3, 2022 | 08:22 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah gave a public lecture on “Modern Judiciary in the Constitutional Court” for the Law Faculty of Nusa Cendana University, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara on Thursday, June 2, 2022.

He explained that modern justice was a judiciary with an ICT-based (Information, Communication, and Technology) work system and had advanced mindset and culture. The objective of the ICT-based judiciary is to cut costs and time; to minimize corruption, collusion, and nepotism; to realize efficient, effective, transparent, and accountable work processes; as well as to improve the quality of public services.

Currently, ICT has become the backbone of all activities carried out by the Constitutional Court, not only in the Justice Administration System (JAS) but also in the General Administration System (GAS).

Guntur also said that the judiciary supported digital/electronic-based learning by adopting the development of ICT. The judiciary, he said, must actively promote rationality and substantive justice in the process and in achieving its goals. Then, it must be able to detect the regulatory needs of the justice-seeking community. In addition, the judiciary must consider the “spirit” of the law—that the law exists for society. 

ICT-Based Judiciary

Guntur said the Court responded to ICT development through an Integrated System, including the case settlement management information system (SIMPP), the information system and financial verification (SIVIKA), e-Kinerja, e-SKP, the dynamic archival information system (SIKD), the electronic petition information system (SIMPEL), e-Perisalah, e-Minutasi , e-BRPK, case tracking, and video conferencing.

The Court also responded to the development of ICT through a 24/7 online public services for justice seekers, single sign-in that only required one-time authentication to obtain access to all services in the network, as well as the digital mindset and M-KIT.

ICT in the Constitutional Court, Guntur said, also stands for integrity, cleanliness, trustworthiness. Integrity is defined as human capital that ensures there is no loss of human identity. Cleanliness is freedom from corruption and self-serving acts. Meanwhile, trustworthiness is the most important element in the enforcement of law in the digital era.

Thus, he added, ICT must not be interpreted only as information, communication and technology but as integrity, cleanliness, trustworthiness. When technology is understood only as a tool, the man behind the tool could utilize it inappropriately.

No less important thing, Guntur added, is that the era of Disruption 4.0, which is marked by the rapid development of technology, has been a learning curve for the Constitutional Court. It urged the Court to make its legal practices smarter, more time-saving, and more accurate. The Court provides transcripts live streaming of court hearings, as well as its decisions free to download. Petitions can now be lodged online and hearings be conducted remotely, making things even simpler. 

Court of Norms

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session. A student asked whether the Constitutional Court could hold a hearing without the opposing party. Guntur replied that this was commonly known as a hearing in absentia.

“The Constitutional Court is a court for abstract-general norms, not concrete cases. In the case of judicial review, there is no respondent. The president and the House provide information, and are not petitioner’s opposing parties. However, in the case of general elections and regional elections, which are concrete cases, the [KPU (General Elections Commission)] is the respondent,” he explained.

There were questions related to practices of modern justice in the Constitutional Court. Guntur explained that when talking about the Constitutional Court, many people referred to its decisions. However, very few people question the supporting system in the Constitutional Court, for example the number of researchers assist the constitutional justices, how the Court upload decisions in less than 30 minutes after the ruling is pronounced, and so on. He hoped in the future there would be a lot more research and studies on the Judicial Administration System (JAS) and the General Administration System (GAS). 

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

Translation uploaded on 6/6/2021 10:47 WIB

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

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