Jakarta - The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected a judicial review request requesting that non-religious citizens be recognized in Law Number 23 of 2006 concerning Population Administration (Adminduk).

"Rejecting the petitioners' requests for other than and the rest," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo reading the verdict No. 146/PUU-XXII/2024 reported by ANTARA, Friday, January 3.

In this case, two citizens who claimed not to embrace certain religions and beliefs, Raymond Kamil and Teguh Sugiharto, questioned Article 61 paragraph (1) and Article 64 paragraph (1) of the Administrative Law.

Article 61 paragraph (1) relates to family cards (KK), while Article 64 paragraph (1) regarding identity cards (KTP). The two articles tested regulate the provisions that KK and KTP contain religious or belief columns.

The petitioners argued that population data at the KK and KTP should not include religious columns or beliefs for citizens who do not want to embrace certain religions or beliefs.

Regarding the argument for the petition, the Constitutional Court emphasized that the concept of religious freedom adopted by the Indonesian constitution is not freedom that provides space for citizens not to embrace religion or not to adhere to belief in God Almighty.

According to the Court, the state constitution forms the character of the Indonesian nation as a religious nation or nation that has confidence in the existence of God Almighty.

To realize the character of a nation like that, there are norms in the Adminduk Law that require every citizen to state or register themselves as adherents of religion or adherents of belief.

Restrictions for Indonesian citizens in the form of the obligation to declare that embracing a certain religion or belief is a necessity, as expected by Pancasila and mandated by the constitution.

The Court considered that the restriction was a proportional restriction and was not applied arbitrarily and arbitrarily. This is because every citizen is only required to mention their religion and belief to be recorded and submitted in population data, without any other legal obligations.

"Religious or not adhering to the belief in God Almighty cannot be judged as freedom of religion or freedom of belief in God Almighty," said Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat reading out the considerations of the verdict.

Source: https://voi.id/en/news/44785