High Court has accepted the appeal cases submitted by Attorney General's Office against the order from the Information Commissioner's Office to disclose information regarding the 248 political appointees dismissed from various ministries.
High Court has accepted the appeal cases submitted by Attorney General's Office against the order from the Information Commissioner's Office to disclose information regarding the 248 political appointees dismissed from various ministries.
On October 15 last year, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu announced that 228 political appointees will be dismissed from various ministries under the government's economic reform agenda. Later, President's Office Spokesperson Heena Waleed announced that a total of 248 political appointees had been dismissed.
However, to date, it has not been disclosed who these 248 appointees are, or from which ministries they had been dismissed.
Under the Right to Information Act, Mihaaru News, as well as other entities, applied for this information to be shared, which the President's Office rejected claiming it included personal information of individuals. The Information Commissioner's Office subsequently ordered the President's Office to disclose this information.
The President's Office continue to refuse to disclose this information, separately appealing rulings to all three requests.
High Court's website indicates that all three cases have now been accepted and registered.
When the information was initially requested, the President's Office cited a prior Supreme Court ruling, stating that as per Article 24 of the Constitution, the names of the dismissed appointees cannot be disclosed.
However, the Information Commissioner's Office ruled that names of political appointees cannot be considered personal information, and so must be disclosed, granting the President's Office five days within which to comply.
Although the President's Office has withheld the information, some ministries have previously disclosed details of all their political appointees in response to other RTI requests.
Previously, the President has said that the dismissed appointees include 7 State ministers, 43 deputy ministers, 109 senior political directors and 69 political directors. He said then that their dismissal would save over MVR 5.7 million per month from the State budget.
Sign In