Supreme Court gets six younger justices

Supreme Court gets six younger justices

JAKARTA (JP): Chief Justice Soerjono yesterday installed six
new justices to serve in the Supreme Court, replacing those who
recently reached the mandatory retirement age of 65.

Soerjono disclosed yesterday that five other serving justices
are due for retirement this year which means that the Supreme
Court will shortly undergo a major rejuvenation process.

The Supreme Court, the highest appeals court, is served by 51
justices, including its chief. In their daily work to try
appeals, they are divided into 17 teams of three justices each.

They are appointed by presidential decree.

Five of the six newly installed justices were formerly judges
serving in the lower courts. They are Soeharto, formerly chief of
the Jakarta high court; his deputy Anak Agung Ayu Mirah; Asma
Samik Ibrahim, former chief of the Surabaya state administrative
high court; Mariana Sutadi Nasution, formerly deputy of the
Tanjung Karang high court in Lampung; and Mohammad Muhaimin,
formerly chief of the religious high court in Semarang.

The odd one out is Iskandar Kamil, an Army major general and
formerly a member of the House of Representatives.

The Supreme Court has been under strong pressure for some
years now to clear the huge backlog of appeals. It has expanded
from its original 45 justices to 51 to cope with the workload.

By January this year, however, it still had to clear 16,000
cases and the number grows each year by 2,000.

Chief Justice Soejono in his speech yesterday underlined that
one of the requirements of a justice is that he or she must be
above any influence and have the courage to make the right
decisions.

He also urged the new justices to heed the criticisms against
the court system, particularly the Supreme Court, in recent years
and to the growing public demand and expectations of the courts.

Amid accusations that it lacked independence from the
government, the Supreme Court over the past year has made a
number of rulings that pass judgment against the government.
(anr)