Direct Observation of Circuit Court
DG of Badilag Wahyu Widiana conversing with an amil (marriage registration staff) who often assists people to attend to court.
Ciamis | badilag.net/english
Director General of Religious Courts Body in the Supreme Court, Wahyu Widiana, directly observed the hearing process of circuit court which was held by Ciamis Religious Court on Thursday (27/5) in the court’s zittingplaats (hearing venue) located in Pangandaran, West Java.
Wahyu sees circuit court as one of the highly prioritized programs that Religious Courts provide for helping people to access to court.
“The number of case tried in Pangandaran is quite a few, reaching hundreds. I want to know at first hand the mechanism of the hearings,” Wahyu said.
The Pangandaran’s circuit court is provided for people living in 9 sub districts located some 60 to 90 kilo meters from the city center of Ciamis. There were 182 cases heard on that day, all of which were divorce petitions (divorce filed by husbands) and handled by two panels of judges.
.“Are the parties able to obtain divorce certificate immediately after the hearings end?” Wahyu asked an officer of the court while scrutinizing the authenticity of the divorce certificates. The officer said the parties could get their divorce certificates shortly after the final hearing.
Vice Chief Judge, E. Mastur Turmudzi, said Ciamis Religious Court regularly holds mobile court in Pangandaran in the 4th week every month. “But we only hear divorce petition cases that do not involve other disputes,” he said, adding that rather-complicated cases would be heard at the court building.
Ciamis Religious Court has scheduled 10 circuit courts in 2010. “We only received state budget for circuit court Rp. 21 millions. “Thus, for one circuit court, we allocate Rp. 2.1 millions,” Registrar Aan Iskandar concluded.