Court’s Legal Analyst Siswantana Putri Rachmatika delivering a lecture on the “Constitutional Court” to 100 students of FISIPOL Unesa during their study visit on Thursday (9/18/2025). Photo by MKRI/IlhamWM.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Students of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIPOL) of State Surabaya University (Unesa), accompanied by several lecturers, visited the Constitutional Court (MK) in Jakarta on Thursday, September 18, 2025. The group of around 100 students was welcomed by the Court’s Legal Analyst Siswantana Putri Rachmatika.

Tika, as she is familiarly known, explained the background of the Court’s establishment. She pointed out that the Court emerged because there had been no clear mechanism in the past to resolve constitutional legal issues. Prior to the amendments to the 1945 Constitution, Indonesia had no judicial body with the authority to review laws against the Constitution.

“Many laws were problematic, but at that time there was no mechanism to test them against the 1945 Constitution,” Tika said in the Delegation Room, 4th Floor, Building I of the Court.

She further highlighted that presidential impeachments on political grounds had occurred, frequent conflicts among state institutions and government bodies were only settled under the president’s authority, there was no clear forum for resolving electoral disputes, and the dissolution of political parties was carried out through the Supreme Court with unclear procedures.

Through the third amendment to the 1945 Constitution, Article 24C was introduced, stipulating the establishment of the Constitutional Court. To elaborate and implement this constitutional mandate, the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) drafted the Constitutional Court Law. After a series of deliberations, the draft was approved and ratified at the DPR Plenary Session on August 13, 2003.

On the same day, President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed the law, which was published in the State Gazette as Law No. 24 of 2003 on the Constitutional Court (State Gazette of 2003 No. 98, Supplement to the State Gazette No. 4316). Chronologically, Indonesia became the 78th country to establish a Constitutional Court, and the first in the world to establish such an institution in the 21st century. On August 13, 2003, this date was later agreed upon by the constitutional justices as the official founding day of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia.

Today, the Court stands as one of the independent judicial bodies mandated to uphold law and justice. It has the authority to adjudicate at the first and final instance with decisions that are final, including reviewing laws against the Constitution, settling disputes over the authority of state institutions conferred by the Constitution, deciding on the dissolution of political parties, and resolving disputes over election results.

The Court is also mandated to decide on the House of Representatives’ opinion regarding alleged constitutional violations by the President and/or Vice President. As set out in Article 7A of the 1945 Constitution, such violations include treason against the state, corruption, bribery, other criminal acts, disgraceful conduct, and/or failure to meet the constitutional requirements as President and/or Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia.

Tika elaborated on the Court’s authority to conduct judicial review, namely to assess whether the content of a law is inconsistent with the Constitution. Judicial review comprises two types: formal review and material review.

Applications for formal review, which examine the legislative process of a law, must be filed no later than 45 days after the law is enacted. The Court must render a decision within 60 working days after hearing the statements of the House of Representatives and the President. Meanwhile, applications for material review, which assess the substantive norms of a law, are not subject to a filing deadline, nor is there a time limit for the Court to hand down a ruling.

Author : Mimi Kartika
Editor : N. Rosi
Translator : Jessica Rivena Meilania/Yuanna Sisilia

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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