SBY to inaugurate two Constitutional Court Judges

Ahmad Fadil Sumadi, Vice Chief Judge of PTA Jogjakarta, is to replace Maruarar Siahaan from the Supreme Court.

Jakarta | badilag.net/english (7/1)

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) is planned to inaugurate two Constitutional Court Judges today (7/1). The two judges are Ahmad Fadil Sumadi, Vice Chief Judge of PTA (High Religious Court) Jogjakarta, and Hamdan Zoelva.

“Yes, (inauguration) tomorrow at 10 o’clock,” Akil Mochtar, Constitutional Court Judge, confirmed on Wednesday (6/1) as quoted by vivanews.com.

The two judges will replace two other judges, Abdul Mukhtie Fadjar and Maruarar Siahaan, who have ended their terms of service in the Court.

Akil further said Ahmad Fadil will replace Maruarar who was proposed by the Supreme Court while Hamdan Zoelva will replace Abdul Mukhtie that was chosen by the government. According to Article 23 Law No. 24/2003 on the Constitutional Court, Judges at the Constitutional Court will be dismissed respectfully if they reach 67 years of age.

Ahmad Fadil Sumadi

Initially, the Supreme Court nominated three candidates to replace Maruarar Siahaan before finally chose Ahmad Fadil. Besides Ahmad Fadil, there are two other names, Daming Sunusi (Judge at Surabaya High Court) and Marni Emmy Mustafa (Judge at Jakarta High Court).

“I am not proposing myself (for this candidacy), but appointed by the Supreme Court leadership,” Fadil Sumadi once said when asked by badilag.net (16/12).

The Constitutional Court is not a new institution for him to work despite the fact that his background is from Religious Court. Fadil had been working for the Constitutional Court from 2003-2008 as Registrar.

“I had been working in the Court since it was established,” he said.

Fadil, who was born in Kendal 57 years ago, started his career at Islamic High Court in Solo in 1980. He was then officially appointed as a judge in 1987 at Semarang Religious Court. In 1990 he was Vice Chief Judge at Semarang Religious Court and Chief Judge of  Salatiga Religious Court in 1994 and Chief Judge of Purwodadi Religious Court in 1998.

Prior to his appointment as Vice Chief Judge of Jogjakarta High Religious Court in 2008, Fadil had been working as Judge at Semarang High Religious Court from 1999-2001 before moving to Jakarta High Religious Court in 2001.

“(Besides being a judge) I am also lecturing at a number of universities such IAIN (State Institute for Islamic Studies) Walisongo Semarang, Sultan Agung Islamic Univeristy Semarang, Muhammadiyah University Semarang, Nahdlatul Ulama University Surakarta, and Indonusa Esa Unggul university Jakarta,” Fadil said.

“I am now still pursuing my Doctorate degree on Constitutional Law at Diponegoro University,” he said.

He finished his undergraduate degree from IAIN Walisongo and Muhammadiyah University Jogjakarta and his magisterial degree from UII (Indonesia Islamic University) Jogjakarta majoring in Constitutional Law.

To Avoid Case Backlogs Becomes The Main Priority

Jakarta, Badiilag.net

After attending an urgent meeting in the Supreme Court 3-4 of May, the Director General of the Religious Courts, Wahyu Widiana and  his colleagues create a team called “Monitoring Team for Prioritized Reform Programs”.

The team consists of some potential young officials working in the Directorate General of the Religious Courts. The main task of the team is to monitor some important reform programs in the Religious Courts.

The prioritized reform programs are case settlement, court administration and case management, human resources management, public service, information desk, legal aid post, circuit court and prodeo cases (waiving court fees) and website development.

The Director General of the Religious Courts, Wahyu Widiana explained that the monitoring will stimulate all Religious Courts to pay their great attention to the reform programs.

“The prioritized reform programs are intensively socialized to all Religious Courts and they are well monitored”, Wahyu Widiana said when he conducted a work visit to North Maluku and Makassar a couple days ago.

He suggested that all leaders of the Religious Courts as well as officials be up to date with the recent development of the Supreme Court’s policy on reform programs.

Wahyu Widiana also emphasized on the importance of case settlement. “All cases must be quickly settled in accordance with the procedural law. It is aimed to avoid back log of cases”, he said.

He said that all Religious Courts have to take the Supreme Court as a good sample in settling cases. Cases in the Supreme Court increase every year and the back log of cases decrease dramatically.(raj)