High Court operations to resume after a hiatus of over a month
Last hearing held on December 12th
High Court premises
High Court is to resume hearings of cases on Sunday, after a hiatus of over a month.
The website of High Court shows that the last hearing of the court was held on December 12th. The Court is yet to reveal why no hearings were held for the past month.
Normally, High Court goes into recess at the end of the year. However, no such announcement was made last year and some criticism had been aimed at the Court due to this.
The Court had scheduled hearings of two cases for Sunday.
High Court has an acute issue with Judges. As of now the bench is comprised of four Judges and supplemented by three from High Court’s Southern branch.
High Court bench currently consists of Chief Judge Abdulla Didi, Judge Shujau Usman, Judge Abdul Ghanee Mohamed, Judge Abdulla Hameed, Judge Shuaib Hussain Zakariyya, Judge Abdul Rauf Ibrahim, and Judge Ali Sameer.
Judge Shujau, Judge Abdul Ghanee, and Judge Shuaib are working at the southern branch in Addu city’s Hithadhoo.
The Supreme Court had, on August 29, ordered to temporarily transfer three judges from the High Court's southern branch to Malé, noting that "there are over 500 cases pending, with some for over six months".
The order said that the three are to be transferred for a period of three months, from 5th September 2017.
The High Court established its southern branch in 2015, appointing Judges Ghanee, Shuaib and Azmiralda Zahir. Usman was appointed to the branch after Azmiralda's resignation in 2016.
Back in June, the Parliament had passed to increase the number of High Court judges from nine to 11, also "to conclude cases at faster pace".
