Supreme Court verdict on land row queried

JAKARTA (JP): A litigant in a land dispute has demanded that the Supreme Court take strict disciplinary action against court officials whom he claimed had lost two written agreements stating that the 1991 case had already been settled out of the court with the rival party.

According to Bustami, a businessman, the negligence of the officials had led the Supreme Court to give judgment in favor of the other party to the case, Benyamin Laoh, in 1998.

Bustami's lawyer, Djunaidi, said on Wednesday that his client's request was contained in a letter to Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Ketut Suraputra, which had been delivered to the latter's address a day earlier.

"As a result of the loss of these documents, the case, which had been settled amicably out of court by my client and the plaintiff, landowner Benyamin Laoh, eventually wound up in the Supreme Court where my client lost," the lawyer said.

In a ruling issued in 1998, the Supreme Court ordered, inter alia, that Bustami return the disputed 633 square meters of land on Jl. Tanah Tinggi Timur in Central Jakarta to Benyamin.

In 1991, the local district court rejected an action concerning the land bought by Benyamin, who then appealed to the high court which ruled against him in 1993. Benyamin then appealed the case to the Supreme Court in the following year.

According to Djunaidi, Benyamin -- after filing his appeal with the Supreme Court -- approached his client asking to settle the case out of court. Bustami finally agreed to pay Benjamin Rp 175 million in settlement of the dispute.

The deal between the parties was then forwarded to the Supreme Court in July 1994, the lawyer said.

Bustami only realized that he had lost the case when he learned that the appeal had been heard by the Supreme Court without his knowledge, Djunaidi said.

In a ruling dated Oct. 5, 1998, the Supreme Court -- seemingly unaware of the out-of-court settlement between the litigants -- decided for Benyamin, the lawyer added.

Therefore, he said, his client wanted the Supreme Court to review the case since its officials had lost copies of the settlement deal.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, no Supreme Court officials could be reached for comment.

Djunaidi further claimed that none of the Supreme Court officials were willing to explain the whereabouts of the missing documents.

Djunaidi said that he had explained in the letter to the Deputy Chief Justice that his client had legally purchased the land for Rp 150 million from Benyamin in 1991 but that the latter had then claimed that the deal had been canceled and that he had returned Rp 125 million to Bustami. (ylt)