Court can't review laws, says Oetojo

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court does not have the authority to examine the constitutionality of laws, Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman said yesterday.

"Laws are created by people and the government. They cannot be examined by anyone else," Oetojo said when asked to comment on former chief justice Purwoto Gandasubrata's remarks that the Supreme Court should be given the power to test all laws.

"Ours is a system that divides state powers into three branches," the minister said, referring to the division between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Oetojo made the remarks after attending the oath-taking ceremony of 10 new Supreme Court justices.

In 1993 Purwoto issued a ruling that allowed the Supreme Court to examine the constitutionality of government regulations.

The debate was reopened this week when Purwoto suggested that the Court's judicial review powers be extended to include testing the constitutionality of laws, according to Kompas newspaper.

Oetojo denied the suggestion that the Supreme Court had become subordinate to the government because it did not have the power to examine the constitutionality of laws.

The latest debate on judicial reviews comes as the Supreme Court's is being returned to full strength with the appointment of 10 justices. They are replacing those who reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 or passed away over the past year.

During the oath-taking ceremony Chief Justice Sarwata said the Court's main priority was to clear the huge backlog of cases, which stood at 17,599 at the end of last December.

The Court currently has 51 justices.

At full strength, Sarwata said the court could clear 1,000 cases a month. "By 2000, we hope to be able to keep the number of cases at any one time to be between 1,500 and 2,000," he said.

The 10 new justices installed yesterday were Enim Aminah Achdiat, I Nengah Wedastra, Mangatas Nasution, Marnis Kahar, R.Sunu Wahadi, Soekirno, Soenardi Padang, Sudarno, Suwawi, and Zainal Abidin Abubakar.

Sarwata said President Soeharto had appointed four new Supreme Court deputies to chief judicial positions that had become vacant because of retirements and deaths.

They are M. Yahya Harahap as deputy for general criminal law, Maj. Gen. German Hoediarto (military court), Zakir (state administrative courts) and M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita (tribal laws). (05)