Constitutional Court Decision 213/PUU-XXIV/2026 is a 2026 ruling of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia on a petition for material review of the guilty-plea provisions of Undang-Undang 20/2025, the new Code of Criminal Procedure (Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Acara Pidana, KUHAP): Pasal 78(1), (2) and (4) and Pasal 234(1).^[1] The petition was brought by five students.^[2] It is one of the constitutional review cases in the field of criminal law and procedure pronounced by the Court on 16 July 2026.^[3]

The Court held that it had jurisdiction but did not reach the merits. Neither the original nor the revised petition was accompanied by a list of exhibits and exhibits bearing a duty stamp, and the Court held that the petition failed the formal requirements for a statutory review petition and declared it inadmissible.^[4][3:1] The provisions under review were left as enacted.

¶ Provisions under review

Pasal 78 of Undang-Undang 20/2025 governs the guilty plea (Pengakuan Bersalah). Its ayat (1) confines the mechanism to a defendant who is a first offender, to offences punishable by at most five years' imprisonment or a category V fine, and/or to a defendant willing to pay compensation or restitution; ayat (2) has the public prosecutor ask the defendant, accompanied by counsel, whether the defendant is guilty; and ayat (4) provides that the plea is made at a separate hearing before the trial on the merits begins.^[5] Pasal 234(1) allows the prosecutor to transfer a case to the summary procedure (acara pemeriksaan singkat) where, on the reading of the indictment, the defendant admits all the acts charged and pleads guilty to an offence punishable by no more than seven years.^[6]

¶ Petition

The petition, dated 21 May 2026, was received and registered on 11 June 2026, and a revised petition was received on 4 July 2026.^[7] It argued that the provisions lacked detailed rules on procedure, conditions, the limits of the judge's authority and the protection of the defendant's rights, and were therefore contrary to the guarantee of fair legal certainty in Pasal 28D(1) of the 1945 Constitution.^[8] The relief asked the Court to hold the four provisions conditionally unconstitutional unless read to mean that a guilty plea may be used only where it is given freely and voluntarily, after effective assistance of counsel, with full understanding of its consequences, and after the judge is first satisfied that it is supported by lawful evidence and does not diminish the defendant's right to a fair trial.^[9]

¶ Ruling

The Court recorded that the petition had been filed online with exhibits that bore no duty stamp (meterai).^[10] At the preliminary examination on 23 June 2026 the panel advised the petitioners under Pasal 39 of the Constitutional Court Law and Pasal 36(3) of Peraturan Mahkamah Konstitusi 7/2025, and set a deadline of 6 July 2026 at 12.00 WIB for a revised petition with duly stamped evidence.^[11] The revision, received online at 20.24 WIB on 4 July 2026, again had no list of exhibits and no stamped exhibits. At the hearing of 6 July 2026 the petitioners confirmed the omission, and the panel did not validate any evidence.^[12]

Applying Pasal 10(4) of Peraturan Mahkamah Konstitusi 7/2025, which requires a petition to be accompanied by supporting evidence, and Pasal 12(3), which requires an online filing to be accompanied by one set of evidence bearing a duty stamp, the Court held that the petition did not satisfy the formal requirements and did not consider it further.^[4:1] The operative order declared the petition inadmissible. The decision was reached in deliberation on 7 July 2026 and pronounced on 16 July 2026, with Suhartoyo presiding.^[3:2]

The same requirements decided decision 202/PUU-XXIV/2026 on the Criminal Code on the same day, and decision 256/PUU-XXIV/2026 on the Police Law on 30 July 2026.^[13][14] CRPG's regulatory tracker published an account of the decision on 19 August 2026.^[15]

¶ See also

• Constitutional Court Decision 205/PUU-XXIV/2026
• Constitutional Court Decision 270/PUU-XXIV/2026

¶ External links

• Decision (Mahkamah Konstitusi)
• Case record (Mahkamah Konstitusi)
• CRPG: Filing Requirements in Criminal Procedure Code Review: MK 213/PUU-XXIV/2026 (crpg.id, 19 August 2026)

¶ References