Erwin Sihombing, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court has thrown out a legal challenge seeking to contest the state's recognition of a sole bar association, in a spat that goes back to 2008.
The court ruled on Thursday that the challenge brought by a group of lawyers, including veteran O.C. Kaligis, against two articles in the 2003 Law on Advocates did not infringe on their constitutional rights and would remain in place.
The plaintiffs had been seeking to strike down articles 2(1) and 28(1) of the law, which state, respectively, that all lawyers must pass a bar examination, or PKPA, administered by a recognized bar association; and that the state will only recognize one bar association.
The law stops short of identifying that association, but the government has since 2005 recognized the Indonesian Bar Association, or Peradi, as the country's only official association of lawyers.
The lawyers challenging the article, most of them from the rival Indonesian Advocates Congress, or KAI, had argued that the law unfairly disqualified lawyers who had passed the PKPA administered by the KAI or any organization other than Peradi.
In hearings during the judicial review, officials from Peradi testified that they had permitted law firms such as Kaligis's to administer the PKPA, but later rescinded that authority after finding that some of the firms had falsified the signatures of those taking the test.
Kaligis's firm was authorized to administer the bar exam from 2009 to 2013, but Peradi found 37 instances during that period in which it falsified the identities of those actually taking the test. Peradi reported Kaligis to the police in January 2013 over the matter, and an investigation is pending.
The spat between Peradi – which was established in 2008 following the merger of eight bar associations and subsequently recognized by the state as the sole authorized bar association in the country – and the KAI dates back to 2008, when the latter was set up.
Lawyers who passed the bar exam administered by the KAI found they were forbidden by the Supreme Court from representing clients in court unless they obtained Peradi certification.
KAI members claim Peradi is legally flawed because it was established by only a few individuals instead of a congress of lawyers, which was what prompted a group of KAI lawyers to seek a judicial review of the 2003 law with the Constitutional Court in 2011.
When the Supreme Court in 2010 reaffirmed Peradi as the only state-recognized bar association, lawyers from the KAI ran amok outside the courthouse, vandalizing the front gate and hurling insults at the chief justice.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/court-reaffirms-bar-associations-status/