Department of Judicial Administration (DJA) has denied rumors that the Northern branch of High Court is to be closed.

Various media sources have reported that the Northern branch is to be closed due to budgetary constraints. DJA says no decision to that effect has been made.

The staff of the branch had been relocated to Male’ last month. DJA reported that they were brought in for training. No additional details of the training or the training period had been made public.

The office building for the Northern branch is closed and no trials had taken place in the branch. Laws mandate that every High Court branch has to have a bench of three Judges. So far, no Judges had been appointed to the branch.

Cases filed in the Northern branch had been routed to Male’ High Court for trials.