Beyond Religious Bureaucracy: Sapta Darma’s Marriage Registration Struggle in Post-Constitutional Reform Indonesia
Keywords:
Constitutional Court decision; , Islamic law and minority rights; , legal agency; , marriage registration; , Sapta Darma.Abstract
This study offers the first empirical analysis of how Indonesia’s landmark Constitutional Court Decision No. 97/PUU-XIV/2016 transforms marriage registration rights for indigenous belief communities, focusing on Sapta Darma adherents in Kediri. Through qualitative case study methods -including 12 in-depth interviews, participant observation, and policy document analysis- this study reveals the dual strategy shift among marginalised believers: from forced religious impersonation (pre-ruling) to constitutionally empowered legal agency (post-ruling) and uncovers local governance innovation where Kediri District transcended bureaucratic inertia by operationalising rights through technical guidelines (Perda No. 6/2017). The study shows that the ruling delivers transformative legal justice by enabling ID card recognition (aliran kepercayaan), marriage registration, and birth certificate access, effectively resolving decades of administrative erasure. The local government response exemplifies rights-based policy entrepreneurship, institutionalising non-discriminatory service delivery. This alignment receives dual validation: universal human rights principles (equality and non-discrimination) and Islamic legal theory (maslahah; Quranic human dignity). This research contributes to global scholarship by demonstrating how constitutional rulings can catalyse bureaucratic reform for marginalised communities. It offers a transferable framework that integrates human rights and Islamic legal reasoning to advance minority citizenship in plural legal systems around the world.
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