New justices needed to handle backlogged cases

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court will never try the 14,000 backlogged cases piling up unless the government recruits "extraordinary" justices to handle them, a legal expert said yesterday.

Yusril Ihza Mahendra said there is no way the existing 52 justices at the Supreme Court would be able to clear the backlog even if they work 24 hours a day.

To make things worse, he said, now only 42 justices are available and the remaining 10 position are empty for various reasons.

"The government can recruit as many extraordinary justices as possible. If they think they need 200 justices, just appoint that many. That's the only way to solve the backlog at the Supreme Court," Yusril, head of state structure department of University of Indonesia's School of Law, told Antara.

Concern over the long-standing backlog has been voiced increasingly lately as Chief Justice Soerjono will retire on Nov. 1. His deputy Muhammad Djaelani retired last month.

The House of Representatives proposed on Oct. 18, during its plenary session, two candidates for the post of chief justice: Deputy Chief Justice for Military Tribunals Sarwata and Justice Suwardi Martowirono.

The House also proposed two others for the position of deputy chief justice: State Administrative Court Deputy Chief Justice T.H. Ketut Saraputra and Justice Chabib Sjarbini.

Yusril said that extraordinary justices can be recruited from senior legal experts or law professors. "I think all the law professors can be approached.

"I will accept if the Supreme Court asks me to become an extraordinary justice. As a constitutional law expert, I could handle subversion cases," he said.

Currently, the Supreme Court lacks justices with a background of constitutional law. As a consequence, Tempo magazine's appeal against its 1994 closure was handled by a customary law expert.

He also suggested that to reduce the backlog, the Supreme Court should tighten the rules on cases that may be brought before it.

He added that the proposal may encounter opposition because people may feel their rights to an appeal are being denied.

According to civil law and the Criminal Code, all people have the right to appeal at the High Court and the Supreme Court. They also may ask for reevaluation of their cases, with exception to certain cases such as traffic accidents, which go directly to the Supreme Court, he said.

"The pertaining laws will make it extremely difficult to limit the kinds of cases that can be appealed at the Supreme Court. Maybe the laws need revising," he said.

He pointed out that people appeal to the Supreme Court simply because they seek to postpone the implementation of their verdict. (ste)