The Constitutional Court Does Not Accept The Material Test Of The Deputy Minister For Multiple Positions Because The Petitioner Dies

Illustration of the Constitutional Court (MK). (Antanews)

JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court (MK) stated that it could not accept the request for a judicial review regarding the prohibition of deputy ministers (wamen) from holding concurrent positions because the applicant, namely the Executive Director of Indonesia Law and Democracy Studies Juhady Rizaldy Ruringkon, died.

"Declare that the petitioner's application Number 21/PUU-XXIII/2025 cannot be accepted," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo reading the verdict at the Plenary Court Session Room, Jakarta, Thursday, July 17, which was confiscated by Antara.

In legal considerations, Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Saldi Isra, explained that the Court obtained evidence that Juhady Rizaldy Ruringkon had died based on a certificate from the dr. Suyoto Hospital Jakarta on June 22, 2025 at 12.55 WIB.

Therefore, according to the Constitutional Court, the legal standing of the applicant who has died cannot be considered further because the requirement to assume a loss of constitutional rights in the application for law testing must be relevant to the presence of the applicant.

In addition, other requirements must be met so that the applicant can be given legal standing, namely if his request is granted, then the assumption that the loss of constitutional rights will no longer occur or will not occur.

"Thus, because the applicant has died, all the requirements for assuming losses argued by the applicant in explaining the cumulative legal position are not fulfilled by the applicant," said Saldi.

It is known that Juhady Rizaldy Ruringkon, who submitted a judicial review of Law Number 39 of 2008 concerning the Ministry of State at the Constitutional Court, asked that the deputy minister be prohibited from holding concurrent positions.

Juhady tested the material for Article 23 of the State Ministry Law because he felt aggrieved by his constitutional rights.

According to him, the article only regulates the prohibition of concurrent positions against ministers, while against deputy ministers a similar ban is not regulated.

"With no [there] prohibition in the State Ministry Law, applicants who will also have the opportunity to become commissioners and/or supervisory boards of SOEs will be closed because they will compete with deputy ministers who are close to power and can no longer be candidates for commissioners who like the hopes of applicants in the future," he said as quoted from the application file.

The Article 23 of the State Ministry Law reads: The minister is prohibited from holding concurrent positions as: a. other state officials in accordance with statutory regulations; b. commissioners or directors of state companies or private companies; or c. organizational leaders financed from the APBN and/or APBD.

In his petition, Juhady quoted the legal considerations of the Constitutional Court's Decision Number 80/PUU-XVII/2019 which emphasized that deputy ministers should be prohibited from holding concurrent positions, like ministers.

In the legal consideration of decision number 80, the Court stated that the appointment and dismissal of deputy ministers is the prerogative of the President as is the case with the appointment and dismissal of ministers.

Therefore, according to the Constitutional Court, the deputy minister must be placed as a minister so that the entire ban on concurrent positions regulated in Article 23 of the State Ministry Law applies to deputy ministers.

However, at that time, the Constitutional Court decided that the application number 80 could not be accepted because the applicants did not have a legal standing.

According to Juhady, these norms should live in laws to bind to all parties. On that basis, he asked the Constitutional Court to add the phrase deputy minister after the word minister in Article 23 of the State Ministry of State Law.

Thus, he pleaded, the article was changed to read: Ministers and deputy ministers are prohibited from holding concurrent positions as: a. other state officials in accordance with statutory regulations; b. commissioners or directors of state companies or private companies; or c. heads of organizations financed from the APBN and/or the APBD.