The Petitioner (center) at the ruling hearing for Case No. 226/PUU-XXIII/2025 on the judicial review of Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers, Monday (1/19/2026). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court has decided to dismiss a petition by M. Havidz Aima, a professor, who challenged the constitutionality of Article 67 paragraphs (4) and (5) of Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers against Article 27 paragraph (2), Article 28D paragraph (1), Article 28I paragraph (2), and Article 31 paragraph (5) of the 1945 Constitution. The Petitioner questioned the retirement age and post-retirement service of lecturers. The ruling hearing for Decision No. 226/PUU-XXIII/2025 took place on Monday, January 19, 2026.

Delivering the Court’s legal considerations, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra stated that the Court could not find clear elaboration and legal arguments. In addition, the Court had observed that the petitums were unusual.

“In principle, if the Petitioner intended to declare that the provision in question was conditionally unconstitutional under the 1945 Constitution, then the formulation should have read, ‘… and has no binding legal force conditionally insofar as it is not interpreted as …,’ and so forth. Based on the grounds for the petition (posita), which fails to set out the alleged normative contradiction, the Court finds the Petitioner’s petition unclear,” the deputy chief justice stated.

Also read:

Professor Challenges Overlapping Provisions on Lecturers’ Retirement Age, Post-Retirement Service

Professor Affirms Harm Due to Provisions on Retirement Age, Post-Retirement Service for Lecturers

At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, the Petitioner stated that overlapping regulations exist, as seen in the Regulation of the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education No. 2 of 2016 on the Amendment to Ministerial Regulation No. 26 of 2015 on the Registration of Educators in Higher Education Institutions.

He is under an employment agreement set to end on July 31, 2032. The agreement refers to Ministerial Regulation No. 2 of 2016, which allows a professor to serve until the age of seventy-nine. Meanwhile, under the Teacher and Lecturer Law, the empowerment of lecturers with the highest academic rank of professor must follow the Law, which limits the age to only 70 years. This situation, according to the Petitioner, harms not only himself as a lecturer, but also the nation, the state, and the people who need qualified professors.

A dualism of significantly different provisions has arisen in practice in higher education institutions, particularly concerning lecturers with reference to paragraph (8): for retired lecturers as referred to in paragraph (2), the service period is set between seventy to seventy-eight years for those whose last academic rank was professor; and sixty-five to sixty-nine years for those whose last academic rank was below professor.

Explore case No. 226/PUU-XXIII/2025 (in Indonesian).

Author         : Sri Pujianti
Editor          : N. Rosi
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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