Chief Justice Anwar Usman and Chief Registrar Muhidin at the ruling hearing of the material judicial review of Law No. 37 of 2008 on the Ombudsman, Thursday (9/29/2022). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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Thursday, September 29, 2022 | 23:16 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI)—The Constitutional Court (MK) granted the withdrawal of the petition by Moch. Ojat Sudrajat S., a resident of Banten Province and chairman of the Maha Bidik Indonesia association on the judicial review of Law No. 37 of 2008 on the Ombudsman on Thursday, September 29, 2022. Chief Justice Anwar Usman read out the Decree No. 81/PUU-XX/2022 at the ruling hearing from the plenary courtroom.

Following Article 34 of the Constitutional Court Law, the Court had held a panel preliminary hearing on September 6, where the panel had offered their advice to revise the petition. However, on September 18, the Registrar’s Office received a withdrawal request on the grounds that the Petitioner’s complaints against the Ombudsman at the Jakarta State Administrative Court and against the Ombudsman of Banten Province at the Serang State Administrative Court were still ongoing.

The Court asked the Petitioner to confirm this at the petition revision hearing on September 19, in which the Petitioner confirmed. Following Article 35 paragraphs (1) and (2) of the Constitutional Court Law, the justices convened at a justice deliberation meeting (RPH) on September 20 to decide that the withdrawal of the petition was legally grounded and to order the Chief Registrar to record the withdrawal in the electronic constitutional case registration book (e-BRPK) and to return the petition’s copy to the Petitioner.

“[The Court] decides to grant the withdrawal [request] of the Petitioner’s petition; declares petition No. 81/PUU-XX/2022 on the judicial review of Law No. 37 of 2008 on the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia against the 1945 Constitution withdrawn; declares the Petitioner unable to file the a quo petition again,” Chief Justice Anwar said before the litigants, who appeared before the Court virtually.

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Provision on Ombudsman’s Duties and Authorities Challenged

Petitioner Withdraws Petition Against Ombudsman’s Duties and Authorities

At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, September 6, 2022, the Petitioner said his coalition had sent an administrative objection letter to the chairperson of the Ombudsman for the results of complaint of 3 maladministration acts in the appointment of regional heads. He had also sent a complaint on abuse of power to the Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim), alleging that the Ombudsman had received and settled the complaint. He claimed to have potential loss as the Ombudsman had issued a letter to declare that it was processing all those complaints. He believed the Ombudsman should have rejected the complaint since the same complaint is being examined in the Jakarta state administrative court, so it might have violated Article 36 paragraph (1) letter b of the Ombudsman Law and Article 5 letter a of the Ombudsman Regulation No. 48 of 2020

He also asserted that Article 10 of the Ombudsman Law was in violation of his rights granted by Article 27 paragraph (1) and Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. He emphasized that all Indonesian citizens are equal before the law, thus no individual or institution should be immune from the law, or to avoid arrest, detention, interrogation, prosecution, or lawsuit even while performing their duty or authority. In the petitum, he requested that the Court declare Article 10 of the Ombudsman Law unconstitutional and not legally binding if interpreted to mean “In executing its duties and jurisdiction, the Ombudsman shall not be arrested, detained, interrogated, prosecuted, or sued before the court despite having violated the law.”

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

Translation uploaded on 10/17/2022 18:28 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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