Supreme Court to get four new justices, says Sarwata

CIPAYUNG, West Java (JP): Four new Supreme Court justices will be installed on Aug. 20, Chief Justice Sarwata said here Saturday.

Sarwata said the four new justices would fill positions left vacant by people who had died or retired.

The four new justices are: Medan high court chief Djoefri Ramli, Palembang high court chief H.P. Panggabean, Pontianak high court chief Achmad Kowi and Yogyakarta high court deputy chief Supraptini Sutarto.

Sarwata said the court, which usually has 51 justices, currently only has 48. The new justices raise the number to 52.

The scheduled retirement of Justice Soemarsono in October will bring the number down to 51 again.

"I hope that when we again have 51 justices we can speed up hearing the backlog of litigation cases," Sarwata told reporters who took part in a two-day orientation of the Supreme Court's system and settlement of cases.

In June, the court installed 10 justices to replace those who had retired or died. Last month President Soeharto installed four deputy chief justices.

The Supreme Court has been swamped by a huge backlog of cases, which in December stood at 17,599.

Sarwata recently remarked that with 51 justices, the court could settle 50-odd cases a day, or about 1,000 each month.

He estimated that the Supreme Court would be able to clear the backlog by 2000.

Sarwata said yesterday that the court would install the current chief of the Military Supreme Court, Pranowo, as the Supreme Court's new secretary-general.

Pranowo will hold the registrar's position at the same time.

Sarwata said that Zainal Agus would be the new director for State Administration, Djoko Sarwoko director for Criminal Law while Harifin Tumpak would be the director for Civil Law. (05)