Supreme Court focuses on management improvement
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Marking its 59th anniversary on Thursday, the Supreme Court has expressed its intention to improve its management and reduce the court's steadily increasing backlog of cases.
"We expect to make everything orderly and efficient, so that the outcome will improve," Chief Justice Bagir Manan said after an anniversary celebration at his office.
After assuming authority over judicial, administrative and financial affairs from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the religious court from the Ministry of Religious Affairs earlier this year, the Supreme Court is now overseeing 40,000 employees across the country.
Before the "one-roof" policy took effect, the Supreme Court was responsible for some 1,000 employees.
"It's not easy to supervise 40,000 people, but we have no other choice. We're setting up a system that would enable us to do it," he said.
Bagir promised the new system would require the Supreme Court to be tougher on employees, including judges, who violate regulations and the code of conduct.
"We won't hesitate to dismiss employees or ask the President to discharge judges who violate the law," he said. The court recently asked the President to dismiss a former district court head in Central Java, for allegedly accepting bribes.
Bagir said the Supreme Court was striving to reform its case management.
The Supreme Court has been notorious for its disorganized case management, which has resulted in delays to the execution of its verdicts by the Attorney General's Office.
Currently, there is a backlog of some 19,000 cases at the court.
With 37 justices on board, the Supreme Court settles around 550 of 800 cases submitted to it each month.
Another 12 justices will be appointed to the court later this month after their selection by the House of Representatives.
Bagir said he had asked head of the Administrative Court's Supervisory Division Paulus Effendy Lotulung, to identify problems involving the issue.
He admitted some officials were slowing down the legal process for their own benefit.
"That's why we have tried to set up a system that enables involved parties to monitor the progress of a case," Bagir said. He expected the Supreme Court would complete hearing any given case within three months.
In its blueprint for reform, the court sets out to implement administrative reform within the institution, which is dubbed the last bastion of justice.
The country's judicial reform began three years ago, after the House revised a number of legislations on legal institutions.
Observers, however, warned that the independence of the Supreme Court, without proper supervision, would only allow it to abuse its power.
They sought the establishment of a judicial commission, which would have the authority to select Supreme Court justices as well as to monitor its performance,
A bill on judicial commission has reached the House, but its deliberation has not yet been scheduled.