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Petitioners slam cassation filed against air-pollution ruling
Petitioners have also filed a counter-cassation memory.
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A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Petitioners of the Jakarta air-pollution lawsuit have criticized the government’s decision to file a cassation against the air-pollution citizen-lawsuit verdict and in response, the petitioners have also filed a counter-cassation memory.
One of the petitioners’ lawyers, Jihan Fauziah Hamdi, said the petitioners have filed the counter-cassation memory on Friday in response to the cassation memory filed by the Environment and Forestry Ministry on Jan. 13, 2023 that sought to challenge the court ruling on air pollution.
“While the people of Jakarta are seriously fighting air pollution, the Environment and Forestry Minister instead fights its own people by filing a cassation,” Jihan said in a written press statement on Friday.
She said that the petitioners were disappointed with the position of the minister who actually had an important role in implementing the ruling and was responsible for air pollution in Jakarta.
Jihan said that the ministry was supposed to supervise the Jakarta governor in improving air quality in Jakarta and to conduct emission inventory across administrative lines of Jakarta, Banten and West Java as stipulated in the ruling.
The Central Jakarta District Court ruled on Sept. 16, 2021, in favor of 32 residents of Greater Jakarta under the Capital City Coalition that filed a citizen lawsuit demanding the government tackle air pollution in Jakarta.
The district court said in its ruling that officials in central and local administrations of the Greater Jakarta area were guilty of negligence for failing to tackle air pollution in Jakarta.
Two weeks after the ruling, an appeal on behalf of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, Home Minister Tito Karnavian and then-health minister Terawan Agus Putranto was filed with the Jakarta High Court.
The Jakarta High Court on Oct. 17, 2022, ruled against the appeal, affirming the ruling of the Central Jakarta District Court, which was then followed by the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s filing a cassation against the appeal ruling, according to the Central Jakarta District Court website.
Greenpeace Indonesia climate and energy campaigner Bondan Andriyanu also regretted the ministry’s decision of filing the cassation, saying that the ministry would only waste time by doing so.
He pointed out that the people had won the air-pollution lawsuit twice at court, which were supposed to be the chances for the people to attain clean air in Jakarta.
“However, this legal step taken by the Environment and Forestry Minister is a step back. How long do we have to wait to breathe clean air if the government is busy with a legal process instead of guaranteeing clean air for the people?” Bondan said.
One of the petitioners, Khalisah Khalid, said that the cassation filed by the minister showed that the Environment and Forestry Ministry as a government institution had no political will to support progressive environmental law in Indonesia.
“This cassation shows that the Environment and Forestry Minister is always trying to delay its constitutional obligation of fulfilling the people’s rights [to have clean air],” Khalisah said.
