Publish the verdicts or you’ll face charges, says Director General
Director General of Badilag, Wahyu Widiana, checking the judgments published on the official website of PA (Religious Court) Madiun City.
Director General of Religious Courts Body in the Supreme Court (Badilag), Wahyu Widiana, said court officers who were responsible for providing information but did not comply with the stipulations of Law No.14/2008 on the openness of public information could face charges of a minimum one year in prison.
Wahyu made those statements when giving directions to seven Chief Judges of Religious Courts in Madiun, West Java (25/1). The seven Chief Judges are from PA (Religious Court) Madiun Regency, PA Madiun City, PA Ponorogo, PA Magetan, PA Ngawi and PA Nganjuk. They attended the ceremony on the Development of Information Openness System.
.Wahyu also warned that Law no. 14/2008 would give into effect in April 2010. He therefore urged information system in Religious Courts to be completed soon. It is a compulsory for Religious Court as a public institution to provide necessary information, particularly verdicts, in line with the existing regulations, he said.
Director General regretted that efforts to publish the verdicts on the internet are not yet optimum. It is indicated by the small number of judgments published on the website. On the official website of PA Madiun Regency, for example, there are only 50 verdicts available online.
From the dialogue session it is apparent that the low rate of judgments published on the net stems from the tendency to only publish certain rulings that are considered good. Responding to this finding, DG of Badilag asked that verdicts be published regardless of the quality.
“Not only good verdicts that are published. The bad ones must also be put on the web to be evaluated what lacks from the verdicts,” Wahyu explained. (vic)