Judicial Commission's task needs to be defined: Judge

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The work of the yet-to-be-established Judicial Commission should be clearly defined to avoid overlapping functions with the Supreme Court, a judge said Wednesday.

Supreme Court judge Marianna Sutadi said he hoped the Judicial Commission would not interfere with the Supreme Court's task of assessing judges and reconsidering their rulings.

"We support the establishment of a Judicial Commission as an external supervisor, but its function should be different to that of the Supreme Court," she said on the sidelines of a workshop here.

Without such a distinction, the supervisory role would not be effective due to the long decision-making process, she said.

For example, the commission could inspect judges outside the court or in their daily life whether or not the judges had violated laws, she said.

The establishment of a Judicial Commission is obligatory under the amended 1945 Constitution.

The commission would have the authority to recommend the appointment of judges and supervise the conduct of all judges in the country.

The establishment of the commission was approved amid concerns the Supreme Court would monopolize judicial power when the justice ministry relinquished its power to manage courts in 2003.

Many expect the new commission to create a better court system.

At present, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights handles administrative and financial matters in the courts.

Several parties have now drafted versions of the bill regarding the commission before presenting it to the House of Representatives.

Justice Abdul Rahman Saleh agreed with Marianna.

He said the authority of the Judicial Commission stipulated in the 1945 Constitution was too broad, and needed to be modified.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Bagir Manan said he expected the Judicial Commission would help resolve various problems in the country's courts.

"We're trying to solve problems in courts little by little. Don't expect spontaneous results," he said.

He said he had also put in place measures to create better mechanisms in the court.

For example, he said, he had sent letters to High Court judges to restrict the number of cases being appealed to the Supreme Court.

"At present 500-600 cases are handled by the Supreme Court annually," he said.