JAKARTA¬ The judicial review of Law No. 3 of 2025 on the Indonesian National Army (TNI) has entered a new phase. The trial on the judicial review of the TNI Law were held on Monday (23/06/2025) and Tuesday (01/07/2025). The trial of judicial review was held to case of the judicial review of the legislative process five different case numbers, namely No. 45, 56, 69, 75, and 81/PUU-XXIII/2025. In principle, the petitioners consider that there are formal problems in the process of drafting the Law that are not in accordance with the rules, and do not involve meaningful public participation.
The judicial review of legislative process was held on Monday (23/06/2025), had as its agenda hearing session from the Indonesian Parliament (DPR RI) and the President. The Indonesian Parliament was represented by the Chairman of Commission I, Utut Adianto, Chairman of the Indonesian Parliament of Legislative Committee, Bob Hasan, and Chairman of the Indonesian Parliament of Parliamentary Expertise Agency, Inosentius Samsul. Meanwhile, the President was represented by Minister of Law, Supratman Andi Agtas, Minister of Defence, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, and Deputy Minister of Defence, Donny Ermawan.
In his presentation, the Indonesian Parliament considered that the petitioners of the judicial review of legislative process of Law No. 3 of 2025 on the Amendment to Law No. 34 of 2004 on the TNI Law did not have legal standing to sue the Constitutional Court (MK). Utut stated that most of the petitioners were students, private workers, and housekeepers. According to the Indonesian Parliament, the petitioners’ backgrounds are not sufficiently relevant to the substance of the laws of judicial review.
Director of Imparsial, Ardi Manto Adiputra, responded to the statements of the Indonesian Parliament and the government that the petitioners do not have legal standing and have no constitutional loss in the TNI Law petition to the Constitutional Court. According to Ardi, the profession of a student, activist or ordinary citizen does not prevent a person from submitting a review of a law to the Constitutional Court. Ardi added that the process of law regulations that are not in accordance with the rules will create laws that are biased towards the interests of the authorities, not the interests of the general public. Therefore, a judicial review of legislative process of the revision of the TNI Law was conducted.
After the hearing session from the Indonesian Parliament and the President, the Constitutional Court held a judicial review on the TNI Law on Tuesday (01/07/2025). The agenda was to hear expert session, namely Constitutional Law Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia (UI), Muhammad Novrizal, and Constitutional Law Expert from Jentera Law School, Bivitri Susanti.
Muhammad Novrizal in his statement assessed that the discussion of the TNI Amendment Law in the Indonesian Parliament did not meet the requirements of carry over (transferring from the previous period). Novrizal added that the DPR’s statement in the previous session, which mentioned that the formation of the TNI Law used carry over, was not based on concrete evidence because there was no written document that the TNI Amendment Law was decided using the mechanism.
Meanwhile, Bivitri Susanti reminded the importance of academic papers in every legal drafting. According to her, legislation is a product of policy or political decisions that must be accounted for. Therefore, the academic paper as the beginning of the birth of a law is very important. In the hearing session, Bivitri Susanti highlighted the lack of publication and public participation in lawmaking. She said that the law-making process should be in accordance with constitutional principles and not seem closed.
