LEGAL PROTECTION FOR HEIRS AND THE VALIDITY OF A DEED OF MEETING RESOLUTIONS FOUNDED UPON A FORGED HEIRSHIP STATEMENT

The doctrine of saisine, expressed in the maxim holds that an estate devolves upon the heirs automatically and instantaneously at the moment of the decedent’s death, dispensing with any formal act of acceptance or registration. Ownership of the estate is thereby cloaked with legal protection from the outset. That protective cloak is torn whenever a document underpinning a notarial deed is forged, a hazard vividly realised in the Deed of Meeting Resolutions produced in Karawang District Court Decision Number 143/Pid.B/2024/PN Kwg. This article examines the legal consequences attaching to a Deed of Meeting Resolutions grounded upon a Heirship Statement Letter bearing a forged signature, and appraises the liability a notary bears for having failed to shield the excluded heir. Conducted as doctrinal legal research supported by literature review and semi-structured interviews with notarial law academics, the study analyses its materials qualitatively against the statutory and jurisprudential architecture of Indonesian inheritance law. The deed proves voidable or null and void depending upon which limb of Article 1320 of the Civil Code is breached: violation of the objective requirements renders the deed null and void from inception, whereas violation of the subjective requirements leaves the deed voidable, valid until successfully impugned before a competent court. Notarial liability for the ensuing harm may be pursued administratively under the Notary Law and the Notary Code of Ethics, civilly under Article 1365 of the Civil Code, and criminally under Article 392(1) read together with Article 21(1) of the Criminal Code.