‘Justice for the Poor’: Main Issue of Discussion on IA-LDF Survey
Cate Sumner is presenting key findings of the survey
Jakarta | badilag.net/English (19/08/2009)
Following the discussion on survey findings of Family Law Access and Equity by joint forum between Badilag (Religious Courts Body), Badilum (General Courts Body) and LDF (Legal Development Facility) held at the end of last July (27/8), Directorate General of Badilag carried out a discussion yesterday (18/08) concerning action plans for 4 key findings of the survey.
‘Justice for the poor’ is one of the four main issues emerging in the discussion that involved Chairpersons and Registrars of Religious Courts from greater Jakarta (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi) and was led by Hidayatullah, with Cate Sumner (Lead Adviser LDF) and Leisha Lister (Executive Adviser to the CEO FCoA) as resources person.
‘Justice for the poor’ is closely related to prodeo cases and circuit court, two legal facilities which have enabled people, who could not afford to come to court due to poverty and long distance, to access to justice.
“The state has to guarantee the people to bring their cases to court,” said Mukti Arto, spokesperson of group I discussing this issue. The state’s guarantee, Mukti said, was to be implemented through state budget for free waiver and circuit court sittings.
.All participants including officials from 2nd and 3rd echelons in the Directorate General of Badilag agreed with the state’s intervention in ensuring access to justice for the poor through budget process for every Religious Court.
Furthermore, participants of the discussion urged that specific Supreme Court Regulation pertaining article 81 A (2) Law No. 3/2009 needed to immediately issue since, referring to the article, state fund allocation for prodeo cases could be seen as against the law.
Responding to this expected regulation, Wahyu Widiana, Director General of Badilag offered good news saying that Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would soon issue a Supreme Court Regulation on the consent to utilize state budget for prodeo cases.
“Draft of the regulation is already on the Chief Justice’s table. Hopefully it’ll be signed this week,” Wahyu said.
What is no less important from the issue around ‘justice for the poor’ is socialization of the availability of prodeo cases and circuit court sittings.
“We need to publicize this information through various media that we own,” said Mukti Arto.
Director General of Badilag among the participants
Acceleration of Providing Verdicts and Divorce Certificates.
The second issue in the discussion was, as the survey revealed, that judges’ rulings and divorce certificates took a long time to be available and no punctuality when they could be obtained.
As a result, court users had to spend an amount of additional fee to repeatedly come to court. Concerning this problem, Chairman of PTA (High Religious Court) Bandung also spokesperson of group II, Zainal Imamah insisted that Religious Courts ideally had to provide copies of their judgments right after being read.
“Judgments of the panel must be fixed and ready to be available for justice seekers. If this is done, court users won’t return to court to get the judgments,” Zainal Imamah insisted.
Therefore, group II made a recommendation for Chairmen of PTAs to formulate a Circular Letter stipulating that judgments being delivered by panel of judges had to be fixed and ready to be handed down to justice seekers.
Zainal Imamah, representing his group, added that number of judges and officers in each Religious Courts needed to meet the ideal number matched with the caseload. In addition, other supporting facilities such as computer set and Case Management Application, Zainal said, were vital.
As for divorce certificates, according to Zainal Imamah, Religious Courts should provide them shortly after the verdicts have a final and binding force for divorce claim cases and right after divorce is decreed before the hearings.
Transparency of Court Fees
Another action plan discussed was about the transparency of court fees. Tata Sutayuga, spokesperson of group III, said that Religious Courts had to be open and transparent in managing court fees. Publication via a range of media such as internet-based information and court boards was one way.
“Courts must install a visible board, like banner, for court fees so people know what fees they have to pay. If websites are already available, then this fee announcement can be uploaded,” said Tata Sutayuga.
nother alternative way to ensure this court fee openness, Sutayuga said, was through written information like brochures, posters, leaflets disseminated to broader community until to the remote ones, villages and family units.
A range of court-owned media such as websites, TVs, SMS Gateways and others could be used for the transparency of court fees, group II added.
Refund of Court Fee Remainders
The fourth major issue surfacing in the discussion among high-rank officials of Religious Courts from greater Jakarta was the refund of court fees paid by justice seekers. The Family Law Access and Equity Study revealed that Courts asked fees as down payments higher than the amount of fees written on verdicts. Consequently, the Courts had to return the rest of the fees and regulate it with Special Operating Standard.
One of PA Kendal’s web pages containing announcement of refund of court fees remainder
This last issue was discussed by group III who proposed the availability of special counter for justice seekers to refund their fees. Courts had also to provide clear information on the availability of fees remainder.
Besides letter notification, Courts owning websites, according to group III, had to announce lists of court users who had not yet refund their money. If deadline was met, the money had to be return to government treasury.
Court Proceedings: Religious Courts Excellence
Wahyu Widiana, Director General of Badilag, explained that one of the prerequisites to embody Court Excellence was leadership and Court Proceedings.
He said standard procedures for prodeo cases, taking verdicts and divorce certificates, court fees transparency and refund of fees remainder were obvious forms of Court Proceedings that had to exist in every Religious Court.
The Director General highly appreciated the discussion involving key figures of excellent services within Religious Courts. He also expressed his deep gratitude to Cate Sumner and Leisha Lister, two prominent figures in improving Religious Court services especially through their researches that had been proven advantageous.
Wahyu Widiana hoped the spirit of enhancing services did not stop inside the discussion room but could reverberate to all Religious Courts across the country.
“I hope the sound of the discussion to echo through all Religious Courts in every corner of the country,” he said. (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./cho)