July 16, 2024
JAKARTA – The Supreme Court is expected to add the first-ever female justice to its religious chamber if the House of Representatives approves of the sole name proposed by the Judicial Commission.
The sole nominee is Muhayah, a female judge and the deputy head of the Samarinda Religious High Court in East Kalimantan.
If House Commission III overseeing legal affairs confirms her, Muhayah would be the first female justice to serve in the Supreme Court’s religious chamber, according to Judicial Commissioner and spokesperson Mukti Fajar Nur Dewata.
“Currently, the Supreme Court’s religious chamber is still composed of only male justices,” Mukti told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
In the Muslim majority country, cases related to familial relationships of Muslims, such as divorce, probate, custody of children and controversial underage marriage dispensations, are heard in religious courts while those of non-Muslims are handled by civil courts.
Muhayah was among the 26 candidates – mostly male judges – who applied for the single opening in the religious chamber.
During the final interview by the judicial commissioners and independent assessors on Thursday, the only remaining candidates for the religious chamber spot were Muhayah and Lailatul Arofah, another female judge.
“We eventually chose Muhayah because she passed all the competency standards […] Based on her track record, the candidate also has integrity,” Mukti said.
That integrity was shown through Muhayah’s concern regarding the rights of women and children in divorce cases, Mukti said, which was an added value as a judge for the religious chamber.
In the interview, Muhayah said that a judge should only look for strong reasons to approve or reject marriage dispensations requested by parents of children under the age of 19.
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Marriage dispensations have long been criticized as a loophole in the system that can be used to justify child marriage. Religious lower courts nationwide granted 92 percent of 43,000 dispensation requests last year, despite stricter guidelines for judges introduced by the Supreme Court in 2019 to reduce the marriage rate.
Significant step
Experts praised Muhayah’s success in passing the tests and claimed that her prospective addition to the Supreme Court would be of “great significance” for the religious chamber, not just in terms of women’s representation.
“Female representation aside, it is hoped that she brings in new thoughts and a fresh perspective as a female justice to the male-dominated discourse in the religious chamber,” law expert Miko Ginting, who resigned from the Judicial Commission spokesperson post early this year, told the Post on Monday.
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Muhammad Tanziel Aziezi, executive director of the Institute for Research and Advocacy for Independent Courts (LeIP), shared a similar sentiment but noted that the religious chamber has already put out several noteworthy rulings in recent years.
“Those rulings include one regarding alimony payment, which now requires the husband to pay his wife before their talak [divorce vow] so that he cannot run away or remarry before doing so, something that often occurs,” Tanziel said.
However, he believes Muhayah can help “provide more breakthroughs, especially regarding women’s and children’s rights, through her decisions in the religious chamber”.
Onus on House
After months of narrowing down 143 applicants for nine justice posts at five chambers of the Supreme Court, the Judicial Commission announced on Friday that Muhayah and eight other candidates had passed the final interview stage earlier last week.
They include high court judges Abdul Azis, Annas Mustaqim and Aviantara for the criminal chamber, Supreme Court clerk Ennid Hasanuddin for the civil chamber and member of Supreme Court internal supervision division Mustamar for the state administration chamber. Tax court judges L.Y. Hari Sih Advianto and Tri Hidayat Wahyudi as well as the only non-judge candidate Diana Malemita Ginting, an auditor at the Finance Ministry, also made it onto the list for three empty justice positions at the state administration chamber for taxes.
The onus is now on the House to decide whether to confirm Muhayah and the eight other candidates.
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Miko cited an example in 2019 when lawmakers rejected all of the Judicial Commission’s proposed candidates and because they did not meet its standards.
It remains unclear when the House will hold the confirmation hearings for this year’s batch of nominees, but lawmakers will return from recess in mid-August for the last sitting session until new lawmakers are inaugurated in early October.
The Supreme Court is also looking for three new ad hoc judges for human rights issues and the Judicial Commission has proposed three candidates to the House: two Jakarta-based law lecturers and an ad hoc corruption judge at the Bandung District Court in West Java.