Chief Justice Suhartoyo, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra, and the other seven constitutional justices at the judicial review hearing of the Land Acquisition Law, Monday (11/29/2023). Photo by MKRI/Fauzan.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) dismissed the material judicial review petition of Law No. 2 of 2012 on Land Acquisition for Development for Public Interest (Land Acquisition Law) for Case No. 137/PUU-XXI/2023 on Monday, November 29, 2023 in the plenary courtroom. The petition was filed by Indra Afgha Anjani (a resident of Batam City) and Amrin Esarey (a resident of Bintan Regency).

Delivering the legal considerations of Decision No. 137/PUU-XXI/2023, Constitutional Justice M. Guntur Hamzah said the Petitioners argued that several articles in the Land Acquisition Law were problematic, especially the provision on the community participation, public consultation and deliberation, land acquisition planning for the public interest, and the loss of community rights in the objection reporting mechanism. However, the Court observed that the Petitioners did not elaborate on the contradiction between the norms and the 1945 Constitution in their petition. They did not elaborate on the issue of unconstitutionality of the norms, which is the main basis for filing a judicial review petition to the Court.

Justice Guntur added that even if there had been an implied normative juridical argument, it was unconvincing. Therefore, the petition did not meet the requirements in Article 31 paragraph (1) of the Constitutional Court Law and Article 10 paragraph (2) of Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 2 of 2021. In addition, the Petitioners’ petition to declare the entire Land Acquisition Law unconstitutional and has no binding legal force could not explain the unconstitutionality issue in question. Thus, if the petition had been granted, it would have led to legal uncertainty in the form of a loss of juridical basis in land acquisition for the public interest.

“Based on all the legal considerations, the Court argues that due to the unclear legal standing, subject matter, and petitum, the petition in question became unclear or ambiguous,” said Justice Guntur alongside Chief Justice Suhartoyo, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra, and the other six constitutional justices.

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Petition No. 137/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by two Batam citizens, Indra Afgha Anjani and Amrin Esarey. The Petitioners materially challenged Article 9 paragraph (1), Article 10, and Article 14 paragraph (1) of Law No. 2 of 2012 on Land Acquisition for Development for Public Interest (Land Acquisition Law). Article 9 paragraph (1) reads, “The implementation of land acquisition for public interests shall pay attention to the balance between development interests and community interests.”

At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, October 24, the Petitioner’s legal counsel, Muhammad Iqbal Kholidin, said the norm did not clearly define “development interests and community interests.” The Petitioners asserted that concrete impact of the norm can be seen from the Rempang Eco City development, which is a national strategic project (PSN).

In reality, they asserted, the state has a constitutional obligation to redistribute land through agrarian policies in order to create social justice. Besides that, it also has a legal obligation to redistribute land to people who do not own land. In short, for project developments, the communities impacted should actually receive compensation. However, this was not fully implemented due to discriminatory actions that could potentially violate the customary rights of communities in coastal areas, which are guaranteed by Article 28I paragraphs (3) and (4) of the 1945 Constitution.

Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioners requested the Court to order the termination of the Rempang Eco City PSN project or at least declare it suspended.

Furthermore, in the petitum on the subject matter, the Petitioners asked the Constitutional Court to declare Law No. 2 of 2012 on Land Acquisition for Public Interest unconstitutional and not legally binding.

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Najwa Afifah Lukman/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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