News & Event

Verdict Soft Copy is State Document that Must be Guarded

DG of Badilag Wahyu Widiana (center) stressing the importance of storing and publishing court verdicts as state documents.

Bandung | badilag.net/english

One crucial issue was succesfully identified in the workshop on verdict anonimation in Bandung last week (4/6). During this time, besides there are still weaknesses in terms of doing anonimation, it is still often found that soft copy of the verdict was dispersed. As a result, these verdicts are very difficult to be traced which inhibit anonimation process and verdict publication.

Director General of Religious Courts Body (Badilag) Wahyu Widiana calls this problem as a non-technical issues because technically, verdict anonimation and publication has been regulated in the Decision of Chief Justice (SK KMA) Number 144/2007 on Information Transparency in the Court. Meanwhile, file management was not specifically discussed in the decision which was signed by Prof. Bagir Manan.

"In terms of verdict publication, the problem of anonimation may seem simple, but there are non-technical issues beyond anonimation, like the difficulty of finding file or soft copy of the verdict. This must be solved first," said Wahyu Widiana.

Workshop for Making Anonymous Verdict

Bandung | Badilag.net/english

In cooperation with the IAJPT (Indonesia Australia Justice Partnership Transition), DG Badilag held a three-day anonymous verdict workshop in Bandung. The workshop aimed to select which areas of verdict should and should not be obviously published. It involved participants from throughout Indonesia, each of which represented the Appellate Court plus participants from the Supreme Court.

This program refers to the regulation of Chief Justice No. 144/2007 regarding the disclosure of information in courts. The regulation obviously differentiates which points should be and not be obscured, but there are many mistakes regarding the implementation. Based on this fact, DG initiated to hold a workshop not only serving materials and techniques, but also implementing into practice.

The three-day workshop led to an unexpected result which is very encouraging. A total of 3650 decisions from 2007-2009 were successfully made anonymous. The participants also codified the file with appropriate standard. They also formulated a meta-data containing details of the verdict where the identity of the parties had been obscured.

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Govt Finances Marriage Legalization

Jakarta | badilag.net/english

Bekasi regency’s population and civil registration agency plans to register couples of unofficial marriage, locally known as nikah sirri, in 23 districts.

Head of the agency, H. Aspuri, told Antara news agency, that the office has ordered the districts to collect information of unofficial marriage couples.

“The data collection of unregistered marriage couples will be conducted through “Itsbat (Nikah)/Marriage Legalization” mechanism at Bekasi Regency (Cikarang) Religious Court. The data (of the court) will later be used as a marriage certificate,” he said.

“The funding for this Itsbat nikah is from the local state budget (APBD) that we propose in 2010. But the exact number of the budget for this purpose is still waiting the data we’re completing now. We’ll prioritize the budget for the poor,” he added.

Religious Courts Warned Over Counterfeit Divorce Certificates

Source: www.antaranews.com

Jakarta | badilag.net/english

Directorate General of Religious Courts in the Supreme Court (Badilag) pays serious attention on the spread of counterfeit divorce certificates in a number of regions in West Java such as Ciamis, Tasikmalaya, Garut and Banjar. Although the police of those regencies have successfully dismantled the mafia forging the certificates, Director General of Badilag Wahyu Widiana still urges Religious Courts to stay alert.

“Religious Court should be pro-active (in responding) to counterfeit divorce certificates soon when the indication appears. Try to coordinate with High Religious Court and Ditgen Badilag, and if necessary a formal report to the police should be made,” said Wahyu on Monday (31/5).

According to Wahyu, the outspread of such certificates causes a great loss to the judiciary. “You can imagine, they falsified divorce certificates, signatures of court officers, and court verdicts. This case must be thoroughly investigated,” he asserted.

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.