LEGAL CERTAINTY IN MARRIAGE DISPENSATION FOR UNDERAGE WIDOWS/WIDOWERS IN INDONESIA

Abstract

One of the laws is the Law of Marriage Act. Marriage is the physical and conjugal bond between man and woman to build a family based on belief in one supreme God and it must be registered at the Religious Affairs Office for Muslims and at the Population and Civil Registration Agency for Non-Muslims. One of marriage principles that is regulated in the Law of Marriage Act is men and women must have physical and emotional maturity. This principle is defined by Article 7 Section 1 about the age limit for marriage which is nineteen years old. However, Article 7 Section 2 explains the dispensation of marriage for those who are under nineteen years old by submitting a proposal to the court. Regarding the dispensation of marriage, the Religious Court is guided by the Supreme Court Act No. 5 of 2019 and the Religious Affairs Office’s guidelines of stipulating the marriage dispensation is the Law of Ministry of Religious Affairs No. 20 of 2019. These regulations state that the stipulation of marriage dispensation is an obligated requirement that applicants who are under nineteen years old have to complete. Nevertheless, there are cases in which the Religious Affairs Office rejects marriage applications by widows and widowers who are under nineteen years old and it requires a stipulation of marriage dispensation by the court, meanwhile during the applicants’ previous marriage, they have already obtained the dispensation.