Legal counsel Yared Hetharie withdraws the petition virtually at the material judicial review of Law No. 11 of 2000 on Job Creation, Tuesday (9/27/2022). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

---

Tuesday, September 27, 2022 | 15:58 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI)—The Constitutional Court (MK) held a material judicial review hearing for Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. The case No. 90/PUU-XX/2022 was filed by Cahaya, chairperson of a customary law community association, and farmer M. Syarief Usemahu.

The session was supposed to be a preliminary hearing, but the Petitioners’ wish to withdraw the petition was revealed when Constitutional Justice Manahan M. P. Sitompul confirmed Yared Hetharie’s position at the hearing. Hetharie was listed as the Petitioners’ legal counsel but claimed to be both a petitioner and the Petitioners’ legal counsel at the hearing.

Unable to explain his position, Hetharie decided to withdraw the petition. Justice Manahan then advised the Petitioners to first withdraw the petition and then revise it.

“You have made a decision to withdraw the petition. [I] advise that you withdraw it first, then revise it following the procedural law. Please send a request for withdrawal within three days,” said Justice Manahan alongside Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh.

The Petitioners argued that they had been harmed by the enactment of Article 18 juncto Article 11B of the Job Creation Law. They believed the articles had led to more mining and land clearing by PT Maju Mundur and PT Terjun Bebas in Green Village because the basis for criminal punishments against those companies would be obscure. Such actions have resulted in water scarcity for agriculture in the village and could lead to environmental damage, respiratory tract infection, and damage to road infrastructure.

Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioners requested that the Court declare Article 18 juncto Article 11B of the Job Creation Law unconstitutional and not legally binding as long as not be interpreted to mean that persons, legal entities, or corporations with business permits can engage in other activities in forest regions without any administrative penalty.

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

Translation uploaded on 10/13/2022 11:41 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.

---