A motion has been forwarded to the People’s Majlis to change the number of Supreme Court justices from five to seven.

The motion was proposed by MP for central-Henveiru constituency Ali Azim and seeks to increase the number of justices presiding the Supreme Court bench to seven, including the Chief Justice.

The bench initially had seven justices including the Chief Justice under the new constitution. However, the number was reduced to five during the administration of former President Abdulla Yameen who wanted to take the reins of the court, in 2014. The amendment that was brought in 2014 allowed then-President Yameen to appoint and dismiss Chief Justices as well.

Justices who initially presided the bench were Ahmed Faiz Hussain who was dismissed from the post of Chief Justice, Abdulla Areef and Adam Mohamed who currently preside the bench, Abdulla Saeed and Ali Hameed who have been dismissed and Ahmed Abdulla Didi who is the current Chief Justice.

While the motion seeks to change the Supreme Court bench to how it previously was, as passed by then Parliament which was then changed to in 2014. The proposed bill states that this was done with a “political motive”.

This change is being brought in order to upgrade the court to one that fits the criteria under the constitution and is expected to be implemented within this ongoing tenure.