Supreme Court nullifies High Court verdict to accept PhD qualification

The Supreme Court today overturned a High Court verdict that had mandated the Maldives Qualification Authority (MQA) to accept a PhD certificate from an overseas course that the MQA had decided not to recognize.

The issue arose when the MQA decided in 2021 not to recognize PhDs obtained by three individuals from a Sri Lankan college, which granted degrees from a Philippine college. Last year, the High Court ruled that the certificates of all three individuals must be accepted. The High Court's ruling stated that the MQA's decision not to recognize the course was based on a regulation that came into effect after the students had already begun their studies.

When the State appealed the matter to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court ruled today that although the MQA had initially indicated it would accept the course, the decision was made without conducting the necessary due diligence. The court held that it could not order the MQA to accept the certificates based on a document issued without proper verification. Furthermore, the ruling stated that the court cannot mandate action based on a document sent by the MQA that was outside its legal mandate.

However, the ruling noted that since one of the individuals had commenced the PhD course only after receiving written confirmation from the MQA that the course would be accepted, the MQA must provide compensation to that individual if they incurred any loss due to the non-recognition of the certificate. The court found that since the other two individuals were not issued such a document, the MQA is not obligated to compensate them.

Highlighting these points, the bench of three judges unanimously ruled to annul the High Court's judgment that had ordered the acceptance of the individuals' PhD certificates. The ruling further stated that while the two individuals were not entitled to compensation, the third person was. Therefore, the case has been referred back to the High Court to determine the amount of compensation for the third individual.

The Supreme Court bench that heard the case consisted of Justice Hussain Shaheed, Justice Ali Rasheed Hussain, and Justice Abdulla Hameed. Justice Shaheed presided over the bench.