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Court rejects gay policeman's legal challenge
The panel of judges argued that the dismissed cop should have filed an administrative complaint against his supervisors in the police before filing a lawsuit.
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Perfectly sane: A member of the Indonesian LGBT community holds a placard stating that homosexuality is not a mental illness. (tempo.co /-)
T
he Semarang State Administrative Court in Central Java has rejected a lawsuit filed by a former police officer, identified only as TT, against the Central Java Police, which fired him in December because of his sexual orientation.
Ma’ruf Bajammal, a lawyer with the Community Legal Aid Center (LBHM), which is assisting TT, said the panel of judges decided that they could not continue examining the case because TT should have first appealed the dismissal to the authorities within the Central Java Police when he received the termination letter before resorting to filing a lawsuit.
“But there is no such mechanism within the police institution,” Ma’ruf told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
During Thursday’s hearing, Panca Yunior Utono, the presiding judge, said TT’s lawsuit was “premature” because TT had not yet filed an administrative complaint against the Central Java Police chief’s decision to terminate him after he was found to be a homosexual by his colleagues.
In the preliminary statement, the Central Java Police argued that the lawsuit had circumvented the proper legal procedures stipulated in the 2014 Government Administration Law.
Articles 76, 77, and 78 of Law 30/2014 on government administration stipulates that a citizen may file an administrative appeal against decisions made by a government official or their direct supervisor in a government institution. The panel of judges accepted this argument.
“Therefore, the panel of judges believes the court is not yet authorized to accept, examine or decide upon the dispute," he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.
