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Evicted Bukit Duri residents to challenge Supreme Court ruling
The ruling came two years after 93 Bukit Diri residents won a class action suit against the Jakarta administration and the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BWSCC).
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A worker uses a backhoe to demolish a house in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, in 2016. Residents were evicted and their homes destroyed to make way for a waterway aimed at reducing floods. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
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esidents of Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, plan to file a case review (PK) against a 2019 Supreme Court (MA) ruling that denied them compensation after being evicted from their homes in 2016.
“We have heard about the Supreme Court’s ruling, but we will not give up as we’ll file a case review against the ruling immediately,” Sandyawan Sumardi, one of the plaintiffs filing the class action suit, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The MA ruling came two years after 93 Bukit Diri residents won a class action suit against the Jakarta administration and the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BWSCC). The verdict required both to provide compensation for the residents, whose homes along the banks of the Ciliwung River were demolished to make way for a waterway connecting the river to the Manggarai floodgate. The move was part of the city’s efforts to decrease flooding.
During the legal proceeding, both the administration and the BWSCC were adamant that they would not provide financial compensation because residents had failed to produce ownership certificates for the houses. Still, the court ruled in favor of the residents, obliging the city, the BWSCC and the National Land Agency (BPN) to pay Rp 200 million (US$14,285) to each of the 93 plaintiffs.
The administration accepted the ruling and promised to build residents a kampung susun (vertical kampung), which is still on hold because the city failed to secure land for the project.
The BWSCC, on the other hand, was dissatisfied with the result and filed an appeal to the Jakarta High Court in 2017 but was rejected a year later. However, the decision did not deter the agency, as it decided to lodge another appeal to the MA in the hopes that it would annul both decisions.
The MA granted the appeal in 2019 after concluding that neither court had followed standard procedures in handling the class action suits, as stipulated in a 2002 MA regulation.
