The ruling hearing for the formal judicial review of Law No. 12 of 2011 on Lawmaking for case No. 151/PUU-XXIII/2025, Monday (9/29/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) decided to dismiss the material judicial review petition of Law No. 12 of 2011 on Lawmaking filed by Isak Siprianus Kota. The Decision No. 151/PUU-XXIII/2025 was delivered on Monday, September 29, 2025. The ruling hearing was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo and seven other constitutional justices.

“[Verdict: The Court] declares the Petitioner’s petition inadmissible,” the chief justice said reading the verdict.

In its considerations, delivered by Chief Justice Suhartoyo, the Court stated that although the Petitioner based the judicial review on Article 28E paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution, he had failed to elaborate on any conflict between the provision being challenged—the Elucidation to Article 2 of the Lawmaking Law—and the norms of the 1945 Constitution. Without such elaboration, the petition lacked clarity. Therefore, the Court held that the Petitioner’s petition was unclear or obscure.

In addition, the petitums were not drafted in accordance with standard format. In petitums 2 and 3, the wording used was incorrect because it did not contain the phrase “contrary to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and has no binding legal force.” Instead, the Petitioner used the phrase “has no binding legal force in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.”

“Likewise with the wording of petitum 3. It should have been formulated using the phrase ‘contrary to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and has no binding legal force.’ However, the Petitioner instead used the phrase ‘has no binding legal force in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.’ In petitum 4, the formulation was unusual in that it [said the Petitioner] requested the Court to declare Pancasila as the source of all sources of State law insofar as it is not interpreted as the ideology and philosophical foundation of the State,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo delivering the Court’s legal considerations.

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The case No. 151/PUU-XXII/2025 concerns the material judicial review of Law No. 12 of 2011 on Lawmaking, filed by Isak Siprianus Kota. He questioned the norm regarding Pancasila as a source of flaw.

The Petitioner challenged Article 2 of the Lawmaking Law, which affirms that “Pancasila is the source of all of the State’s sources of law.” He argued that the phrase is not in accordance with the fourth paragraph of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, which uses the term “the state structure of the Republic of Indonesia.”

At the preliminary hearing on Monday, September 8, he stated his objection to the Elucidation to Article 2 of the Lawmaking Law, which places Pancasila not only as the basis and ideology of the State, but also as the philosophical basis. He believed that the phrase imposes an interpretation that the “One and Almighty God”—the first precept of Pancasila—also serves as the State’s ideology and philosophical basis.

He opined that the removal of the word “structure” may shift the meaning of Pancasila to only binding for society as a social group, instead of the whole state as an organization, which has a structure and functions from the center to the regions. He added that this could potentially create discrimination because officials or state apparatus would then not be obliged to make Pancasila a source of law.

Moreover, the Petitioner affirmed that laws must not contradict the 1945 Constitution. Therefore, he requested the Court to declare Article 2 of the Lawmaking Law unconstitutional or at least to provide a constitutional interpretation that the correct formulation is “Pancasila is the source of all sources of law within the structure of the Republic of Indonesia.”

Author         : Utami Argawati
Editor          : N. Rosi.
PR               : Tiara Agustina
Translator     : Yuniar Widiastuti, Rizky K. Chaesario (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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