Supreme Court has ruled in favour of eight appointees to the 16th parliament on 13 March 2012, citing that their removal was unconstitutional and ordered the salaries of these appointees be paid from the time of their removal until the new parliament convened.
Formerly, the Maldives’ parliament had eight appointees to the parliament by the president, according to the old constitution. When former President Mohamed Nasheed was sworn in to the office, he removed the eight MPs appointed by his predecessor Gayoom and replaced them with his own set of appointees. This was before the parliament was elected under the new constitution. The election took place on March 9, 2009.
The removed appointees argued that their removal was against the newly ratified constitution of 2008’s article 294 and had initially filed the case in Supreme Court on 12 November 2008, by MP Rozaina Adam and MP Ahmed Mahloof, both who are currently sitting elected MPs.
The article 294 clause (a) of the constitution which is under the ‘Transitional Matters’ chapter states: “The People’s Majlis [Parliament] in existence at the commencement of this Constitution shall continue until such time as the first elections of the People’s Majlis under this Constitution are held, and election of members and assumption of office by the members.”
However the case was later sent to the Civil Court and the court ruled in favor of Nasheed’s government stating the president had the authority to remove the members and appoint his own until the first parliamentary elections is held under the ratified constitution.
The case was later appealed in the High Court on January 4, 2009. The High Court also supported the Civil Court’s verdict and upheld the ruling on 08 February 2009.
The parties then filed to appeal the case to Supreme Court on April 12, 2009.
In the Supreme Court Ruling, a 3 to 2 majority decision was reached by the five member bench which consisted of Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain, Justice Abdullah Saeed (former interim chief justice), Justice Abdullah Areef, Justice Ali Hameed Mohamed and Justice Dr Ahmed Abdullah Didi.
Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain and Justice Abdullah Areef had a deferring opinion which was in support of the High Court Ruling.
Nasheed removed the appointees on 11 November 2008, just a few hours after he was sworn in.
With the Supreme Court ruling, the 8 MPs will now be paid the salary of an MP from the time of their removal until the next parliament was elected on May 9, 2009.
According to the parliament secretariat, salary of an MP at the time of the removal of appointees was RF 62,500 (USD 4053).
If the former MPs are to be paid according to the Supreme court ruling, they are entitled to get the salary of seven months which would be counted from the day they were removed (11 November 2008) to the convening of the first session of the 17th parliament (27 May 2009).
This means each of these parties would receive a sum of RF 437,500 (US$28,372).
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Publicly these people are robbing the treasury.
Any lay man would understand that since the 8 members were appointed by the president, the then president Nasheed removed them, therefore nullifying their status as a MP. Even if the constitution states that Presidents gets to appoint 8 members, its up to the president who gets to sit as presidents members. Therefore this ruling by supreme court is unconstitutional and against the spirit of Democracy
Shows that Anni's actions against the constitution stared within hours of getting him elected.
Roxaina and Mahloog must get married and produce corrupt children like themselves 🙂
What a great palace president Nasheed has provided for these thugs they call themselves 'judges'..... I am sure Dictator Maumoon is so cunning he might want this palace for his own once again.... Who knows what will happen?
Just proves how corrupt and biased the Supreme court is! A joke!
This is utter nonsense. The constitution also says that the President has the right to appoint his own members regarding the 8 members.
No wonder our Judiciary is held in such contempt. We need to change the laws regarding the High Court.
These guys also must be to a term period and not life. We will never have true democracy with people like this. This is one issue I support MDFP fully. Get rid of these idiotic judges and lets get educated and reasonable people.
Incredible! Can we call this justice when The Chief Justice, High Court and Madhanee Court do not agree with this decision!