Don't Be Complacent: Pay Close Attention to the Causes of Duplicate Land Certificates

JAKARTA — Land disputes resulting from duplicate certificates remain a persistent problem encountered across various regions.

A recent example is the land dispute case involving Indonesia’s tenth and twelfth Vice President, Jusuf Kalla (JK), with PT Gowa Makassar Tourism Development (GMTD) in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The dispute arose due to duplicate certificates issued over 16.4 hectares of land in Makassar.

Duplicate certificate cases mean that parties holding certificates over the same plot of land often end up in prolonged conflict, sometimes reaching court proceedings. This situation not only harms landowners but also impedes legal certainty in property transactions.

However, in practice, such authority must still be supported by consistency between physical data and juridical data recorded at the Land Office (Kantah).

Shamy Ardian, Head of Public Relations and Protocol Bureau at the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN), explained several factors that can trigger the emergence of duplicate certificates.

One relates to the status of old certificates categorised as KW 4, 5, and 6. Land certificates falling into these categories were issued between 1961 and 1997 and were not accompanied by cadastral maps. This condition meant that old certificates had not entered the digital data system, making them vulnerable to overlapping.

“Many conflicts and public complaints stem from the absence of cadastral digitalisation in the past,” Shamy said, as quoted by Kompas.com on Friday (27 February 2026).

The ATR/BPN Ministry is currently accelerating the modernisation of land data to prevent similar cases. This effort includes full digitalisation and cadastral validation, as well as cooperation with local governments to resolve data overlaps.

Shamy cited another cause of duplicate certificates: conflicting court decisions.