Agus Triyono – The Supreme Court's decision to scrap eight points from the code of ethics for judges has prompted civil society groups to file a formal complaint against the five justices who ruled in the case.

Jamil Mubarok of the Indonesian Transparency Society (MTI) said his group and others had reported the justices to the Judicial Commission (KY) because of indications they had acted unlawfully in making their decision.

"In the 2009 Law on Judicial Powers, it states a judge must recuse him or herself from hearing a case if there is a conflict of interest," he said. "It also says if the judge insists on staying on, then any ruling handed down in the case is null and void and the judge may face disciplinary action."

Jamil said that in addition to the legal complaint, his group was also filing an ethics complaint against the five justices: Paulus Effendi Lotulung, Ahmad Sukardja, Rehngena Purba, Takdir Rahmadi and Supandi.

The Supreme Court announced on Tuesday it had unilaterally discarded eight points from the code of ethics for judges that it had previously drawn up jointly with the Judicial Commission. "They don't apply anymore," the verdict posted on the court's Web site said, referring to the eight points.

A group of attorneys had filed a case review against two articles of the code: those requiring judges to have high discipline and to be professional. But the court ended up annulling eight points that included a requirement for judges not to neglect facts.

The court decided that Article 8 points 1 to 4 and Article 10 points 1 to 4 of the 2011 joint decree on the judges' codes of ethics violated the law on judicial powers. The justices agreed the joint decree had limited the independence of judges by preventing them from freely making rulings.

The Judicial Commission, which has expressed its disappointment with the decision, said on Wednesday that it would investigate the five justices for ethical and legal violations. "We want to stress that while we respect the court's decision, that doesn't mean we will stop doing our job of monitoring the judiciary," said Ibrahim, one of the commissioners.

Tama S. Langkun, an activist with Indonesia Corruption Watch, one of the groups filing the complaint, called for the justices to be investigated immediately and duly punished. The civil society coalition, he added, was considering reporting the five judges to the police for violating the article on recusal.

Speculation has emerged that the controversial scrapping came in response to the KY publicly calling for sanctions against the district court judges handling a murder case for which former anti-graft czar Antasari Azhar was convicted.

The judges allegedly neglected facts presented during the trial, and although the commission recommended they be suspended, the Supreme Court ignored it.