Chief Justice Anwar Usman opening the Registrar’s Office education and training program on petition reception, Tuesday (1/3/2023) at the Constitutional Court’s hall. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 | 15:35 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI) — In order to improve the quality of its decisions and the court services as well as to prepare for the 2024 simultaneous election, the Constitutional Court (MK) held an education and training program on electronic and manual petition reception, court proceedings, and post-hearing on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at the hall of the Court’s main building. The event was officially opened by Chief Justice Anwar Usman, who was accompanied by Chief Registrar Muhidin and acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan.

In his remarks, Chief Justice Anwar said that since its inception, the Court has been improving continuously in order to facilitate justice seekers. The comprehensive improvements begin from the reception of petitions in the initial proceedings until the end where the decisions are handed down and archived. These improvements not only in judicial but also administrative matters.

“All these efforts, despite needing much improvement, are the Court’s efforts to realize the vision of the modern and trusted judiciary. It is not easy, but the modernization of the judicial system is the most viable way of helping the Constitutional Court in enforcing a constitutional democratic state,” he said.

Modern Judiciary

The chief justice further said that for its dynamic and adaptive hearings, the Constitutional Court took notes from the Disruption 4.0. As a judicial institution, it is committed to become the leading institution that provides the public with access to justice. As the guardian of the state ideology and democracy, it can utilize the rapid development of technology to improve its court system, eventually for the sake of the people.

Chief Justice Anwar said the steps the Court had taken could help make its hearings smarter and more accurate and save time. For that reason, it has provided the way to file petitions online, so that petitioners can do so without having to come to the Court in Jakarta.

The hearings can also be done remotely and openly, which the public can watch live on the Court’s YouTube channel. In addition, after the decisions are pronounced, they can be downloaded from the Court’s website.

“Of course, these ways are limited and there are more technological developments in hearing process in the Constitutional Court. In order to understand how the Court exercises the modern hearing management, we have gathered today. This registrar education and training, starting from the petition receipt until after the hearings, must be taken as [the Court’s] good will in realizing transparent judiciary whose process can be seen by the public. This ideal condition is not impossible, and can be achieved with adequate and reliable infrastructure and facilities, including digital ones,” he asserted.

He also emphasized that this program was a good step for improving the Court’s existing system. “Given the extensive scope of the hearing process in the Court, there needs to be integration between processes that can guarantee the system’s effectiveness, starting from the simplest connectivity, such as petition receipt using the Court’s case management,” he explained.

Improving Quality of Decisions

Meanwhile, acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan said in his report that the Court has the authority to adjudicate at the first and final levels with decisions that are final to review laws against the 1945 Constitution, decide disputes over the authority of state institutions whose authority is granted by the 1945 Constitution, decide the dissolution of parties politics, and deciding disputes about the results of general elections, as well as decide the DPR’s (House of Representatives) opinion of alleged violations by the president and/or vice president according to the 1945 Constitution.

He said the Court had made efforts to continue improving the quality of its decisions and services to the public. “One of them is by holding registrar education and training program on electronic petition reception, court proceedings, and post-hearing of 2023 to staff members of the Constitutional Court. The target group for this program is the staff members of the Registrar’s Office and the Secretariat-General of the Constitutional Court who have direct or indirect contact with the proceedings of the Constitutional Court, which is one of the most important components of understanding the Court’s procedural law,” he explained.

Next, Chief Registrar Muhidin explained that the Court’s case handling is electronic and hoped the program would provide more insights in making the Court a modern and trusted judicial institution. He also said that the case management policy in 2023 was taken to optimize the use of IT support, such as the case settlement management information system (SIMPP), the Court’s website, the integration of SIMPP & SIKD (dynamic archival information system), the implementation of remote and on-site court hearings (hybrid method), and periodic evaluation of SIMPP.

Urgency of Information Security

Next, Nanang Cahyana from the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) delivered a presentation on Cyber Security Awareness and the Urgency of Information Security in the Cyber Era. He emphasized that ICT progress is directly proportional to risks and threats to cybersecurity.

He revealed that attacks in cyberspace, especially on vital information infrastructure, are ever-evolving. Electronic system operators (ESOs) must pursue developing national cybersecurity to create a resilient cyber-environment through three aspects: people, process and technology.

Nanang also emphasized that humans are the weakest point in cybersecurity. No matter good the system, no matter how sophisticated the technology, if the human element is weak or if the people do not care about cybersecurity, it will create the biggest vulnerability.

So, he added, the synergy and collaboration of all stakeholders is needed to deal with cyberattacks, which are threats and disruptions to ESOs’ services and business processes, and he asked the Court to gradually implement cybersecurity.

Validity of Electronic Signature

Sofu Risqi Yulian Saputra delivered a presentation on electronic signatures, which are more prevalently used during the COVID-19 pandemic and whose requirements are regulated by Article 11 of Law No. 11 of 2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions.

He explained that electronic signatures can be either certified or non-certified. Non-certified signatures are signatures that are scanned and inputted into electronic devices, such as the digital representation of biometrics (retina, fingerprint) and unique characters (PIN, password). Meanwhile, certified electronic signatures are encrypted digital signatures. “When using electronic signatures, only use certified ones,” he said.

An uncertified electronic signature can be misused by an irresponsible party in order to falsify documents, making it difficult to prove its authenticity. Meanwhile, certified electronic signatures are digital and unique for each signed document, making them difficult to falsify.

Case Settlement Management Information System (SIMPP)

In the second session, Deputy Registrar I Triyono Edy Budhiarto, case registration administrative officers, and the Court’s IT team presented materials on SIMPP- and website-based case administration management. In SIMPP, the Court offers consultation services both online and offline. It also contains the electronic petition information system (Simpel). Through SIMPP, anyone can file a request to apply to become relevant parties. It also includes electronic petition filing records (e-BP3), petition filing certificate (AP3), and list of petition requirements (DKP3).

SIMPP also includes petition document incompleteness notification certificate (APKBP), petition completeness assessment result checklist (DHPKP2), electronic constitutional case registration book (e-BRPK), constitutional case registration certificate (ARPK), substitute registrar’s case recapitulation, justice’s case recapitulation, substitute registrar’s decree, justice panel’s decree, review of petition and comparative analysis of reviewed articles, relevant party’s testimony, president’s testimony, House’s testimony, consultation report, registration report, and performance report.

The program will be taking place on Tuesday to Thursday, January 3-5, 2023. As many as 125 participants from the Registrar’s Office and the Secretariat-General of the Constitutional Court attended it on site. The program aims to improve understanding and harmonize the perceptions of the staff members on the procedures for receiving petitions and hearings and post-hearing, and improve understanding on case management procedure.

The presentations cover SIMPP- and website-based case management, SIMPP- and website-based case administration; personal data protection and electronic signature validity; SIMPP- and website-based petition filing services; SIMPP- and website-based hearing management; synchronization of remote hearings; SIMPP- and website-based hearing management application; case data management and SIMPP-, e-minute, and website-based case archives; as well as case archives, archive rescue and maintenance.

Speakers from BSSN, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the DPR Secretariat, and the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI), as well as the Constitutional Court’s chief registrar, deputy registrars, case registration team, court hearing teams, summons team, case and decision data processing team, and IT team will be presenting those materials.

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

Translation uploaded on 1/5/2023 13:39 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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