Jakarta Commercial Court again irritates IBRA

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Commercial Court on Thursday turned down the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency's (IBRA) bankruptcy suit against PT Sumi Asih.

The court did so because the amount of unpaid debt claimed by the agency was disputed by the palm oil producer.

Seemingly upset, IBRA's lawyer Kitty Sugondo Kramadibrata criticized the court's ruling as a manipulation of the country's existing 1998 Bankruptcy Law.

"It is nonsense that the amount of unpaid debt which IBRA claimed as creditor is subject to the debtor's approval," Kitty said, commenting on one of the main points of the court's ruling.

The court ruling, as read by the presiding judge, I Gde Nyoman Putra, said the suit was rejected mainly because the amount of debt was still in dispute and because IBRA was not the original creditor of the debt.

Kitty said that the exact amount of the debt should not be taken into consideration, because such issues would inevitably be hashed out in the court-supervised verification process.

"The bankruptcy suit has to be accepted by a 'simple proving of the fact' that there is a matured debt," Kitty said, quoting Section 6, Article 3 of the existing bankruptcy law.

In addition the law required that there had to be at least two creditors for the sued party to be declared bankrupt, Kitty added.

"So it is clear that the law did not require the suing party to declare the exact amount of the debtor's unpaid debt at the time of the filing and during the bankruptcy proceeding," she said.

The other main reason that the court rejected IBRA's bankruptcy suit was that the agency -- in filing the suit -- should not act on its own behalf, but on behalf of the parties to which the debts were originally owed (the now closed Bank Pelita and Bank Umum Nasional).

IBRA took over the banks' assets following the banks' closure.

"The court's ruling is just so weird and biased that all its points of consideration supported the main arguments of the sued party," Kitty complained.

IBRA has lost three legal battles against uncooperative debtors at the Jakarta Commercial Court.

Two bankruptcy suits filed by IBRA earlier this year against trading firm PT Tirtamas Comexindo and PT West Kalindo were also dismissed. (udi)