Constitutional Court Decision 280/PUU-XXIII/2025 is a 2026 ruling of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia on a petition for material review of Pasal 411 and 412 of Undang-Undang 1/2023, the 2023 Criminal Code, which make sexual intercourse with a person other than one's spouse, and cohabitation as husband and wife outside marriage, offences prosecutable only on the complaint of a spouse or, for unmarried persons, of a parent or child.^[1] The petition was brought by ten individual citizens, all law students.^[1:1] It is one of the constitutional review cases in the field of criminal law heard together on the 2023 Criminal Code, and was decided on 12 August 2026.^[2][3]

The Court held that it had jurisdiction but that the petitioners lacked standing, because they had not shown a causal link between the provisions and any actual or potential loss of their constitutional rights. It did not consider the merits, and declared the petition inadmissible.^[4][3:1]

¶ Background and petition

Pasal 411(1) of the 2023 Criminal Code punishes a person who has sexual intercourse with someone who is not their husband or wife, as adultery (perzinaan), with up to one year's imprisonment or a category II fine; Pasal 412(1) punishes cohabiting as husband and wife outside marriage with up to six months' imprisonment or a category II fine. Under Pasal 411(2) and 412(2), neither offence is prosecuted except on the complaint of the spouse, for a person bound by marriage, or of a parent or child, for a person not bound by marriage.^[1:2]

The petition was dated 29 December 2025, received and registered on 30 December 2025, and revised on 27 January 2026.^[5] Its grounds argued that the provisions conflicted with the right to found a family through lawful marriage in Pasal 28B(1) of the 1945 Constitution, because some citizens, including couples of different religions, face legal obstacles to marrying; with equality before the law in Pasal 27(1); with the rights to self-development and information in Pasal 28C(1) and 28F; with legal certainty in Pasal 28D(1), because the terms "parent" and "child" were vague; and with the protection of privacy in Pasal 28G(1).^[6] The relief sought conditional readings confining both offences to persons bound by marriage and the right of complaint to a spouse.^[7]

¶ Proceedings

The Court heard the evidence in joint plenary sessions with five other petitions on the Criminal Code, 275/PUU-XXIII/2025, 282/PUU-XXIII/2025, 26/PUU-XXIV/2026, 27/PUU-XXIV/2026 and 29/PUU-XXIV/2026, as their subjects were related.^[2:1] The President gave a statement on 9 March 2026 and the House of Representatives (DPR) on 13 April 2026, and the petitioners and the President filed written conclusions on 18 June 2026.^[8] The DPR's statement set out, among other things, the Court's earlier reasoning on the validity of marriage under Undang-Undang 1/1974 on marriage; that reasoning forms part of the parties' submissions recorded in the decision, not of the Court's judgment.^[9]

¶ Ruling

The Court accepted that the petitioners had proved they were Indonesian citizens and law students. It held, however, that a petitioner claiming an actual loss from these provisions would have to show that they had been in a relationship outside marriage and been prosecuted on the complaint of a parent or child, and that a petitioner claiming a potential loss would at least have to show such a relationship, even if unreported, and that they were not themselves among those entitled to complain. The evidence showed neither. The Court added that, as students, the petitioners' right to education and to the benefits of knowledge was not hindered by the provisions. It concluded that the claimed loss had no causal link to the provisions, and since the conditions for standing are cumulative, that the petitioners lacked standing.^[4:1]

The operative order declared the petition inadmissible. The decision was reached by nine justices on 13 July 2026 and pronounced in open plenary session on 12 August 2026, with Suhartoyo presiding.^[3:2] Among the petitions heard with it and pronounced the same day, decision 275/PUU-XXIII/2025 was granted in part, giving Pasal 220(1) of the Criminal Code a conditional reading.^[10]

CRPG's regulatory tracker published an account of the decision on 7 September 2026.^[11]

¶ See also

• Constitutional Court Decision 26/PUU-XXIV/2026
• Constitutional Court Decision 27/PUU-XXIV/2026

¶ External links

• Decision (Mahkamah Konstitusi)
• Case record (Mahkamah Konstitusi)
• CRPG: Criminal Code Complaint Standing and Marriage-Related Offences: MK 280/PUU-XXIII/2025 (crpg.id, 7 September 2026)

¶ References