Legal Standing of Hereditary Land Rights (Wewengkon) of Cirebon’s Kasepuhan Palace in Property Law in Indonesia

The Kasepuhan Palace of Cirebon claims to own several land assets in Cirebon as a hereditary right (wewengkon) but are currently used and/or under the control of other parties without the Palace’s permission. One of these other parties is the State-Owned Enterprise of PT. Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) or the Indonesian Railway Company, specifically their Operating Area 3 which covers Cirebon. They are allegedly utilizing the land belonging to the Kasepuhan Palace of Cirebon for their operations as well as to support their business activities. In this case, we will discuss the legal standing of the land in question after the independence period. This research is normative-juridical, and it employs several approaches; statute approach, conceptual approach, and case approach. The research specification used is descriptive-analytical which aims to describe the case accurately. The land belonging to Kasepuhan Palace of Cirebon has been holding wewengkon status since the British era, the Dutch era, the Republican Era and later into the Reformation era, meaning the land rights are inherited from the Kasepuhan Sultanate of Cirebon. However, the enactment of Law No. 5 of 1960 Concerning Basic Agrarian Principles subjected all lands to land reform, thus, transferring the rights to the state, as the land with weweongkon rights held by the Kasepuhan Palace of Cirebon was considered as swapraja or ex-swapraja (self-governing/ autonomous) land, and it was compensated for the rights transfer.