Court to decide on revoking changes to Judges Act on Wednesday
The hearing is set for 1:30 on Wednesday
Opposition parliamentarians infront of the Supreme Court
Supreme Court has scheduled the verdict hearing in the case filed by the joint opposition seeking to revoke the recent amendments to the Judges Act, for Wednesday.
The hearing is set for 1:30pm. The court concluded the hearings in the case in March. The case, filed by the Joint Opposition, was accepted by the court on 15th March.
If the court declares that the amendments are constitutional, then Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Justice Ali Hameed could lose their position as one of the amendments state that ‘a person who has been convicted of a criminal offense shall not be appointed as a Judge’.
It further states that ‘if a criminal charge has been made against a sitting Judge, the Judicial Service Commission shall place the Judge under a suspension without pay, until a final decision has been made by the final Court of Appeal’,
Both Justices are currently under police custody, and have been charged with terrorism and conspiring to overthrow the government, as well as accepting bribes to do so.
The Judges Act was ratified by President Abdulla Yameen on 14th March, along with the anti-defection law. It was approved by the parliament on 13th March.
While the opposition had sought to nullify the anti-defection law as well, earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the anti-defection law was ‘not unconstitutional’.
