1937 was the momentum in which Staatsblaad No. 116/1937 was issued to reduce competence of Religious Court. On 1st of April 1937, Article 2a point (1) stated a legal function to prevail. As a consequence, the competence of Religious Court was limited to particular marriage-related disputes. Apart from these restricted fields of function, several requirements were also to fulfill.
The attempt to reduce the function of Religious Court seemed to be influenced by political mainstream which tended to regard marriage and inheritance as parts of state affairs, not religious ones. There was a quite interesting case related to Staatsblaad No. 116/1937. The case was about inheritance adjudicated in District Court in Bandung where adopted child succeeded in gaining all inheritances from his dead foster father, whereas there were several nephews from the late still alive. This was ridiculously strange to happen.
The adjudication was clearly against Islamic guidance which was widely accepted among citizens. Hence, Indonesian Supreme Assembly (MIAI) leveled against this adjudication on the fact that this odd adjudication could shake the destiny of Islamic norms within society. In addition to this occurrence, in 1938 congress in Surabaya, MIAI issued political announcement stating that the pressure on Moslems was the reflection of sociopolitical violation against civil right.
When Japan came to occupy Indonesia in 1942, law system policies applied in the era of Dutch colonial kept alive. It was the fact that the existence of Religious Court under Japanese occupation was ever threatened to disappear. That was when Japan tried to delegate the functions of Religious court into General Court. However, when Japan was defeated in 1945 and Indonesia proclaimed the independence, this planned agenda did not occur and Religious Court still exists.