TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Constitutional Court (MK) chief justice Anwar Usman is reportedly set to be questioned by the court’s honorary council over an alleged court verdict falsification. The council has scheduled the inspection to take place this afternoon at 3 pm. This was confirmed by the honorary council’s chairperson I Dewa Gede Palguna on February 28.

However, Palguna said the schedule could change in the future considering the queues of court hearings today.

The Honorary Council has begun to investigate the role of the constitutional judges in the case of alleged falsification of the Constitutional Court's verdict which allegedly occurred in the judicial review lawsuit against Article 23 paragraphs 1 and 2, as well as Article 27 A paragraph 2 of the Constitutional Court Law.

The lawsuit was filed by Zico Leonard Djagardo Simanjuntak, which was a response to the House of Representatives' (DPR) decision to replace Aswanto as a constitutional judge. The final verdict was read in a hearing on November 23, 2022, where the MK rejected the lawsuit.

In the MK verdict, Zico found editorial differences between the written copy of the verdict accessed from the MK website and what was verbally read out by the judge.

The verdict reads: "Thus, the dismissal of constitutional judges before the end of their term of office can only be carried out for reasons of resigning at their own request submitted to the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court...".

Meanwhile, in the copy of the decision that was uploaded to the MK website, the phrase “thus” changed to "in the future".

This seemingly minor editorial change is considered essential because it has an impact on whether or not the DPR's decision to replace judge Aswanto was valid. The MK Honorary Council was then formed on 30 January 2023 to investigate this alleged falsification.

M ROSSENO AJI

Editor's Choice: Constitutional Court and the Alleged Minor Editorial Changes with Major Implications

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