Regarding The Supreme Court's Age Limit Decision, KY Says It Will Not Be Affected By The Results Of The Examination

The Judicial Commission (KY) stated that the decision of the Supreme Court (MA) regarding the minimum age limit for regional head candidates would not be affected by the results of the KY examination.

"As is already in effect in the legal and judicial system in Indonesia, the judge's decision has legal force. So, the decision remains in effect," said Member and Spokesperson for the Judicial Commission (KY) Mukti Fajar Nur Dewata in a press conference held at the KY Building, Jakarta, Thursday, July 4, which was confiscated by Antara.

If later it is proven that there is a violation of the code of ethics by the judge, he emphasized, the authority of KY is only up to imposing sanctions.

On the same occasion, KY member Joko Sasmito also said that the main task of the institution was to supervise the judge regarding alleged ethical violations, so that he did not have the authority to change the status of the Supreme Court's decision.

"Even if the alleged ethical violation is proven, the Judicial Commission does not have the authority to change the decision that has been decided by the panel of judges," he said.

It is known, on June 3, 2024, KY received a report from the Democracy and Constitutional Awareness Movement (Gradasi) regarding the alleged violation of the code of ethics by three Supreme Court judges who decided regarding the minimum age limit for regional head candidates, namely Yulius, Yodi Martono Wahyunadi, and Bright Bangun.

Regarding the Gradation report process, Joko said that KY had examined the statements of several parties, namely reporters and related witnesses.

"Including expert information is also needed. We have deployed a team to explore this," he said.

Regarding whether KY would summon the three judges as the reported party, he explained that the summons would be based on the results of the preliminary examination.

"If the alleged ethical violation is strong, then an examination will be carried out on the reported parties. So, if, for example, the results of a preliminary examination, including further examinations, are allegations of ethical violations that cannot be strongly enforced or cannot be followed up, usually the examination of the reported parties does not continue," he said.

In addition to examining witnesses, KY has also collected clues and evidence. To this day, the agency continues to work with the parties to seek additional information regarding reports against three Supreme Court judges.

The Supreme Court's decision regarding the minimum age limit for regional head candidates has number 23 P/HUM/2024 and the application is submitted by the Garuda Party.

In its decision, the Supreme Court stated that Article 4 paragraph (1) letter d of KPU Regulation (PKPU) Number 9 of 2020 contradicts Article 7 paragraph (2) letter e of Law (UU) Number 10 of 2016.

Therefore, the Supreme Court stated that the article in the PKPU does not have legal force as long as it does not mean "... the lowest age is 30 years for candidates for governor and deputy governor and 25 years for candidates for regent and deputy regent or candidate mayor and deputy mayor since the candidate pair is elected".