Ruling hearing on the judicial review of the Child Protection Law, Wednesday (9/27/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) granted the withdrawal of petition of the judicial review of Article 7 paragraphs (2) and (3) of Law No. 16 of 2019 on the Amendment to Law No.1 of 1974 on Marriage and Article 1 paragraph (1) of Law No. 35 of 2014 on the Amendment to Law No. 23 of 2002 on Child Protection (UUPA). The ruling hearing for case No. 99/PUU-XXI/2023, filed by Dian Leonardo Benny, took place on Wednesday, September 27, 2023 in the plenary courtroom and chaired by Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman.

Chief Justice Anwar Usman announced that the Court had received the petition on August 8, 2023. In accordance with Article 34 of the Constitutional Court Law, it held a preliminary hearing on September 13. Following Article 39 of the Constitutional Court Law and Article 41 paragraph (3) of the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 2 of 2021, the panel of justices advised the Petitioner to revise the petition. Furthermore, through an email on September 20, the Petitioner stated that he was withdrawing his petition. The justice deliberation meeting on September 21 concluded that the withdrawal of the petition was reasonable according to law and the Petitioner could not resubmit the petition.

“[The Court] determines, grants the withdrawal of the petition; declares petition No. 99/PUU-XXI/2023 on the judicial review of Article 7 paragraphs (2) and (3) of Law No. 16 of 2019 on the Amendment to Law No.1 of 1974 on Marriage and Article 1 paragraph (1) of Law No. 35 of 2014 on the Amendment to Law No. 23 of 2002 on Child Protection against the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia withdrawn; declares that the Petitioner cannot resubmit the petition; orders the Registrar’s Office of the Constitutional Court to record the withdrawal of petition No. 99/PUU-XXI/2023 in e-BRPK and return the copy of the petition to the Petitioner,” said Chief Justice Anwar reading out the decree alongside by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and the other constitutional justices.

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At the preliminary hearing on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, the Petitioner said that the change to the minimum marriage age for men and women—currently the same—and dispensation for underage children—as mentioned in the Constitutional Court Decision No. 22/PUU-XV/2017—had led to the increase of requests for marriage dispensation from the religious court. He revealed that until November 13, 2019, the Religious Court of Semarang City had recorded 85 of such requests; while the Religious Court of Purwakarta had recorded 92 of such requests in 2019. There was no specific definition of such dispensations in the Marriage Law.

The Petitioner believed the obscurity of the norm had led to increasing requests of marriage dispensation in Indonesia. The majority of such requests were filed to the Religious Court due to out-of-wedlock pregnancy due to premarital sex among underage children, followed by economic factor or poverty, in which parents marry their children to older men in the hopes it would lessen the family’s burden. He asserted that in order to avoid such legal ambiguity and for the sake of legislative harmony, the articles relating to the age of legal adulthood and the minimum marriage age must be harmonized and set to be either 18 or 19 years. Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court annul the a quo articles and declare them unconstitutional.

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Tahlitha Laela/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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