Bank approval in sale of three Heavy Load islands revoked by High Court

High Court has revoked the approval given by the Civil Court to BML in the sale of three islands under Heavy Load Maldives Pvt Ltd. The sale was approved initially due to a loan payment failure.

Former Deputy Speaker of Parliament "Reeko" Moosa Manik is a stakeholder of Heavy Load. The Civil Court approved the sale of the three islands due to a failure in paying off a USD 11 million (MVR 170 million) loan.

BML had announced last November that they were going to sell the three islands in line with the approval. However, Heavy Load appealed to the High Court to revoke the approval given by the Civil Court.

The High Court issued an interim order until the case is resolved.

As per the High Court's sentence yesterday, the Civil Court is in violation of the Civil Procedure Code in the approval of the island sales. Reason being, the sales figure only took BML's recommendation into account.

When Heavy Load and BML submitted their mortgage figures, there was a significant discrepancy between the two. However, as the Bid Committee delayed the process for two years and six months, the Civil Court ruled that the delay had caused financial harm to BML.

And so, even though the Civil Court approved the mortgage sale after taking BML's submitted sale figure into account, the High Court's sentence states that there was no negligence on the part of the plaintiff's and defendant's. It went on to say that if the Bid Committee is experiencing delays, the court should expedite the process.

"If there is no negligence from the plaintiffs and defendants, and if the sale of the mortgage is approved even if the Civil Procedure Code is not met, it cannot be seen as improper," as per the High Court's sentence.

BML had at the time announced the sale of Laamu atoll Fares Island, Kuda Fares Island and Bodu Huraa Island. Fares and Kuda Fares Islands are where the Rahaa Resort is being operated. Bodu Huraa was given for agricultural use.

The head lease of the islands will be completed in 2064.

Rahaa Resort has 100 beds, all beach villas. The resort also offers water sports, diving and spa services.