A historical decision was taken by the constitutional court on Thursday which declared the 42 year old law of restricting spouses of foreigners to buy property in Indonesia. This historical law restricted spouses of the foreigners from buying a land or a building without having a proper prenuptial agreement separating the ownership of their property.

The decision to eliminate this requirement of prenuptial marriage agreement according to the article 29 of the 1974 marriage law. The elimination of this law now paves the way for thousands of Indonesians married to foreigners to own a property as well as the agreement can now be made on separate ownership during their marriage.

This law was highly appreciated by Indonesian Mixed-Marriage Society (PerCa). They rejoiced it as a ruling that upholds the principle of justice and gives local spouses the constitutional rights they should be entitled to. “We fully welcome the ruling by the Constitutional Court, which shows that it cares about and sides with mixed-marriage couples who are often subject to discrimination,” PerCa said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The 1974 Marriage law treated both spouses equally giving them the freedom to create a marriage contract before civil registry official or a notary. Before Thursday’s ruling , the married couple could not make any separation on the property or debt they owned during marriage or after it, the only exception was on the things before the marriage took place.

The decision was taken by the court as this was found unfair as it took the basic right of an individual to own or separate property to individual property. They found it to be violating the article 28E of the constitution. “In fact, many couples mull whether to draw up a marriage contract after their marriage for many reasons,” said presiding judge Wahiddudin Adams, while reading the ruling at the Constitutional Court in Central Jakarta.

“Property ownership in a marriage is one of the factors behind many conflicts between a husband and wife,” Wahiddudin said. Plaintiff Ike Farida an active PerCa said that this ruling has made it easy for the locals married with the foreigners to own property by creating a marriage contract that stipulated the separation of property ownership.

Ike confirmed that a previously a lot of mixed marriages happened without the prenuptial contract as most couples were unaware of the regulation.