Another judicial review hearing of the Job Creation Law for case No. 39/PUU-XXI/2023, Tuesday (2/13/2024). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Another material judicial review hearing of Articles 38 and 42 of Law No. 6 of 2023 on the Stipulation of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 2 of 2022 on Job Creation into Law was held again by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. The petition No. 39/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by 10 workers’ unions and 109 individuals, including the workers’ union of the state-owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Persero) or SP PLN, the workers’ union of Indonesia Power or PP IP, and the workers’ union of PT Pembangkitan Jawa Bali.

Chief Justice Suhartoyo said that the hearing had been scheduled to hear the Government’s expert, who did not attend the hearing.

“[The constitutional justices] have discussed among ourselves that because the Government has been given the opportunity [to present experts] and the fact is today [they] cannot present [the experts]… since the Court must swiftly settle ongoing judicial review cases, we [decided] that the President’s expert’s testimony be delivered in writing. This also applies to the Relevant Party’s expert’s testimony. As such, today’s hearing is the last [for this case] and the litigants can submit their closing statements to the Registrar’s Office by February 22, 2024,” he concluded.

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The Petitioners argue that the Job Creation Law regulates the supply of electricity for public interest to be unbundling. Prior to the a quo Law, Article 10 paragraph (2) and Article 11 paragraph (1) of Law No. 30 of 2009 on Electricity has been interpreted constitutionally through Constitutional Court Decision No. 111/PUU-XIII/2015 while the Electricity Law No. 20 of 2002 has been revoked by the Court on December 21, 2004 with Decisions 001-021-022/PUU-I/2003. Those Electricity Laws were ruled as such since the unbundling system in the supply of electricity was deemed unconstitutional. However, it is reenacted in the latest Job Creation Law.

The Petitioners believe that the substance of Article 10 paragraph (2) of the Job Creation Law is the same as that of Article 10 paragraph (2) of the Electricity Law, which the Court ruled conditionally unconstitutional through Decision No. 111/PUU-XIII/2015. They also argue that electricity is a crucial branch of production for the state that affect the livelihood of many was emphasized by the legislatures in the consideration letter a and the elucidation to Article 3 paragraph (1).

In addition, they believe that the unbundling system means that electricity supply business be separated into generation, transmission, distribution, and sales business. This clause practically commodifies electricity. They emphasized that electricity business activities that are carried out competitively by treating business actors equally and by separate or unbundled business entities are unconstitutional following the legal considerations of the Constitutional Court Decisions 001-021-022/PUU-I/2003. Therefore, in their petitum, they request that the two articles be declared unconstitutional.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : 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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