Thinadhoo city status dispute to be redirected to Civil Court

After High Court rejected a constitutional petition filed to downgrade Gdh. Thinadhoo's 'city' status because it fails to meet the population requirement of 10,000 people, the applicant has now decided to take the case up with the Civil Court.

Thinadhoo was given a status of a city during the presidential campaign of former President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih. According to the statistics of the time, the population of Thinadhoo was about 8,000. Of these, about 5,000 are believed to live in the island.

According to the Decentralisation Act, the population must reach 10,000 to the island to be granted city status. As such, former Deputy Minister of Environment and lawyer Mohammed Raghib filed a case at the High Court to cancel the city status of Thinadhoo.

He told Mihaaru today that he will file the case with the Civil Court.

In his ruling on the matter, the Registrar of the High Court said that among the constitutional cases, the High Court has jurisdiction to hear cases where a law or part of a law is stated to be unconstitutional. The Registrar also ruled that the President's resolution cannot be given the status of a law and is not a legal source passed by the Parliament.

The Supreme Court has also ruled that the motions relating to the resolution are not constitutionally subject to the jurisdiction of the High Court, the Registrar said. As such, it was decided that the court would not be able to hear the first stage of the case.

Raghib was removed from his position as Deputy Minister over the case.

Speaking to Mihaaru, Ragib said the Thinadhoo council had kept a fraudulent list claiming that the population reached 10,000, but that further analysis of the list showed major discrepancies in it.

"From what I have seen, there are people in the list who have died many years ago. There are people with the same name who have just changed their ID card numbers. People have been included in the list after repreatedly changing their ID cards. It is an illegal list," Raghib said.

He said that information he sought via the Right to Information Act also showed that Thinadhoo's population is only 7,000.

Because of this, Raghib claims that Thinadhoo's city status was designated based on the fraudulent list provided by the council. He further said that he has asked Thinadhoo Council and former President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih to be investigated in the case, alleging that they have deliberately forged government documents and gave false information to a government agency.

Raghib said he has also sought the cancellation of the city status given to Thinadhoo. The issue has been escalated by north Thinadhoo North Saudullah Hilmi to the Parliament as well.