Chief Justice Suhartoyo giving a public lecture to Bina Nusantara at a raining for professional advocates (PKPA) in collaboration with West Jakarta Peradi, Saturday (5/4/2024). Photo by MKRI/Agung.

---

JAKARTA (MKRI) — As many as 292 students listened to a public lecture by Chief Justice Suhartoyo at a training for professional advocates (PKPA) batch X of Bina Nusantara (Binus) on Saturday, May 4, 2024, which took place both onsite and virtually at the Kijang Function Chamber. The collaboration between the branch executive board (DPC) of the Association of Indonesian Advocates (Peradi) and Binus provided the students with insights on the Constitutional Court (MK).

Through a presentation entitled “Procedural law in the Constitutional Court,” Chief Justice Suhartoyo introduced the legal basis for the Court’s establishment and its authority and obligations. He also talked about litigating in the Court to review laws. He explained that every Indonesian citizen can submit a judicial review petition of laws that they consider not in accordance with the development of the constitutional rights of citizens. Therefore, foreign citizens cannot petition against norms contained in the Indonesian Constitution.

“Therefore, to appeal to the Constitutional Court and file a judicial review case, one does not have to be an advocate or accompanied by one. However, one can appoint a companion who is not an advocate. This is to facilitate justice seekers to fight for their constitutional rights that have been harmed without any financial burden. That is the soul or basic spirit of the Court,” Chief Justice Suhartoyo explained.

Next, he invited the students to understand the format of a judicial review petition as laid out in Article 10 of the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 2 of 2021 on the procedural law for judicial review. The format includes the Petitioner’s profile, consisting of their name and/or their legal representative, occupation, citizenship, address, and email address; a description of the matters that form the basis of the petition, which includes the authority of the Court, the petitioner’s legal standing, and the reasons for the petition (posita); then closed by the matters requested (petitum).

Chief Justice Suhartoyo talked about the process of the judicial review proceedings, from the preliminary hearing to evidentiary hearings, including testimonies by the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Government. In this case, the House and the Government are not the petitioner’s adversaries as they may be in general courts, but they are to provide information to describe the law’s academic study and to answer the petitioner’s questions.

Benefits of Court Decisions

In the lecture, Chief Justice Suhartoyo also introduced other authority of the Court such as resolving disputes over the authority of state institutions whose authority is stated in the Constitution. He gave examples of state institutions whose cases had been submitted to the Court. He also discussed the authority of resolving cases of presidential, legislative, and regional head elections. In detail, he talked about the differences in the legal standing of each party that can file a petition and a few things related to the organization of the hearings and its settlement in the Constitutional Court.

In the Q&A session, a participant asked about the Court’s authority to provide a new interpretation of the law. In response, Chief Justice Suhartoyo gave an example of a case that has been ruled by the Court.

“For example, coworkers at the same office could not get married, even though this is related to the constitutional right of citizens for the need of a decent life. If the Court did not provide interpretation and only stated that it was contrary to the Constitution, it would not have contributed to the needs of citizens. Therefore, the Court declares ‘if [the law] is interpreted or not interpreted such and such’ so it becomes useful in its authority for citizens seeking justice. That is the Court’s effort, giving conditional interpretation to a norm made by the legislatures,” he answered.

Author              : Sri Pujianti
Editor               : Nur R.
Translator         : Frity Michael Br Sembiring/Yuniar W. (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.

---