Amendment to slash Supreme Court bench unconstitutional: Bar Council

The amendment passed by the Parliament yesterday to reduce the number of Supreme Court judges from seven to five is unconstitutional, said the Bar Council yesterday.

In a statement, the council said the council had significant constitutional and legal concerns over the bill, and that these concerns were shared with President Dr Mohamed Muizzu, the Parliament's Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Ahmed Usham and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

The statement that the reason for the bill and the purpose intended to achieve were not clear. While the constitution clearly defines the procedure for appointment of the Chief Justice and Supreme Court judges, the constitution states that a judge should not be removed from office if they did not deviating from the code of conduct and regulations to by followed by judges, the council said.

Judges can only be removed from office only if the JSC is satisfied that the judge is unfit for office or has committed inappropriate conduct, and is approved by the parliament. However, the council said, they were concerned that history was repeating itself where previous administrations had also changed the legislation to remove judges from the bench.

“The Council considers that the proposed amendments to Maldives' Courts Act are contrary to Articles 148, 149 and 154 of the constitution and are contrary to legal and constitutional principles,” the statement said.

The Bar Council said that neither a private individual nor a person entrusted with the administration of a public affair should interfere and influence the work of judges. However, the Bar Council said the bill would influence the work of judges.

According to the statement, the bill requires two of the seven Supreme Court judges to be declared unfit and reported to the Parliament within five days. The Bar Council said this was not only unconstitutional, but also in violation of the JSC Act.

"Since Article 268 of the constitution states that any law or part of law made in violation of the constitution shall be null and void, such law or part of law shall not be valid and everything done in violation of the constitution shall be null and void, this council believes that the aforementioned bill is clearly in violation of the very fundamental aspects of the constitution," the Bar Council said.

The statement said the council had sent a letter to the president urging him to reconsider ratifying the bill, and to instead send the bill back to the parliament for revision.

The bill, submitted to the parliament by the ruling PNC's Holhudhoo MP Abdul Sattar Mohamed, was passed by 68 votes in favour. Only PNC members supported the bill.

The timing of the bill coincides with the Supreme Court's decision to continue hearings for a petition seeking to quash the anti defection amendment. With the bill passing, however, three Supreme Court judges were suspended shortly before the hearing was supposed to begin.