TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Constitutional Court on Tuesday declared deputy ministers positions as unconstitutional, after it accepted a request for a judicial review of the 2008 State Ministry Law. Having heard all arguments from both the government and the National Corruption Eradication Movement (GNPK) - the latter which filed for the review request - the court decided to partially accept a review of the law. "The ruling of the Constitutional Court partially grants the request made by the requesting party," said Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD on June 5. The court stated that even as Article 10 of the 2008 Law allowed President Yudhoyono to select a deputy minister to take on additional responsibilities at the said Ministry, that position needed to be opened up to all potential applicants and not just active career civil servants. The ruling therefore rendered Article 10, as well as all the positions held by the current deputy ministers, as unconstitutional. President Yudhoyono has so far appointed at least 20 deputy ministers, resulting in an uproar among antigraft watchdogs which pointed out that this was an excessive waste of state money. The GNPK therefore applied for a review of the Law. ISTMAN MP