Court must rule on atolls’ administrative centres, says Nasheed

President Mohamed Nasheed has said that higher courts must interpret the Decentralisation Act and determine which island becomes the centre of the each atoll, after Funadhoo’s Court yesterday declare itself the centre of Shaviyani Atoll.

Nasheed said the government would appeal the court’s ruling if the Attorney General found it did not favour the state.

“The government wants a final court ruling on the matter in order to define jurisdiction of each party involved in implementation of both principles and processes of decentralisation stipulated by both Decentralisation Act and the Constitution,” the President’s Office said in a statement.