Ex-Chief Justice provides 'dissent' over Supreme Court's floor-crossing ban

The constitution will always remain at the top of Maldives’ legal hierarchy, and no Supreme Court verdict can defy it, said Ahmed Faiz, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Faiz said this amidst public debate about the Supreme Court decision on Thursday to impose a floor-crossing ban that would cause parliamentarians who switch parties or are dismissed to lose their seats. In the post, sent out through his official personal Facebook account, Faiz said that the Supreme Court has full authority to interpret the constitution, but not to impose sanctions or alter it.

“The constitution is supreme and the all courts in the country are creatures of it, a creature of the constitution should not be allowed to become greater than the creator” he said in the post, which followed under the title ‘My Dissent’.

The Attorney General had pursued the ban on floor-crossing, having asked the Supreme Court to make a decision in reference to Articles 26, 40, 74, and 75 of the constitution.

Faiz’s comment echo a joint-opposition statement that claimed that the verdict is ‘flagrantly unconstitutional’.

It had raised four issues with the verdict; that there are means enshrined within the constitution to remove parliamentarians, that parliamentarians are granted full liberty to conduct themselves in parliament, that the Judicature Act states that five judges preside over constitutional matters – while only three had in this case, and a previously set president where local council members were allowed to switch parties without having to lose their seats.