Subhan’s lawsuit against Gibran foundered in the middle of the ‘road’

JAKARTA, POSKOTA.CO.ID – Subhan Palal’s lawsuit against Gibran Rakabuming Raka and the Indonesian KPU foundered in the middle of the ‘road’. This is because the Central Jakarta District Court (PN) granted the defendants’ exception.

Subhan Palal sued Gibran because the son of the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, was deemed not to have met the educational requirements when registering as a vice presidential candidate in the 2024 General Election.

“In an interim decision, the panel of judges stated that they had no authority to try Subhan’s lawsuit against Gibran Rakabuming Raka (Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia) and the General Election Commission (KPU) of the Republic of Indonesia,” said Sunoto, spokesperson for the Central Jakarta District Court, Monday, December 22 2025.

Sunoto conveyed the legal reasons that were taken into consideration by the panel of judges chaired by Budi Prayitno, including the issue of authority over the substance of the lawsuit which questioned the KPU decision which was a State Administrative Decree (TUN).

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“Based on Article 47 of Law No. 51/2009, the competent authority is the TUN Court. The use of the argument of an unlawful act does not change the substance of the dispute,” explained Sunoto.

The other main legal reason, continued Sunoto, is the Lex Specialis Election in accordance with Law no. 7/2017 concerning Elections which regulates a special mechanism for resolving election disputes through the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) and PTUN (Articles 467-468), not through district courts.

“Then another consideration relates to the position of vice president. Based on Article 7A-7B of the 1945 Constitution, a vice president who has been appointed can only be questioned through the impeachment mechanism by the MPR, not through a civil lawsuit,” said Sunoto.

Meanwhile, Sunoto said that the final reason for the panel of judges was the rejection of the “Residue Theory”. Where, he said, the plaintiff previously submitted a similar lawsuit to the Jakarta PTUN (No. 264/G/2025/PTUN.JKT) which was rejected.

“The Court Residue Theory claimed by the plaintiff is not known in the Indonesian legal system,” he stressed.

Sunoto added that the principle emphasized in this case is that absolute competence is coercive (dwingend recht) and cannot be deviated from. Then the judge is obliged to declare that he has no authority ex officio (according to Article 134 HIR).