No proof that Supreme Court ordered 2017's mass suspension of lawyers: DJA

Over 50 lawyers were suspended without counseling with the Supreme Court.

Current Judical Administrator Dr. Abdulla Nazeer revealed this after being summoned to the parliament’s judiciary committee on Tuesday.

Noting that he has conducted an internal audit since being appointed to the post in November, Nazeer said that there is no evidence to show that the top court had ordered the mass suspension of lawyers.

54 lawyers- out of the 56 who had signed a petition calling to reform the judiciary -the other two were already under suspension- were suspended in September 2017, "for contempt of court". The DJA said that the lawyers were in violation of the Judicature Act, lawyers' pledge and Court regulations, by submitting the 'unlawful' document.

Despite not having an order from the Supreme Court in writing, Nazeer said that there is evidence that then-Judicial Administrator had forwarded the case to police seeking charges.

He added that these concerns have been shared with Supreme Court.

While Hassan Saeed had been the Judicial Administrator at the time of the controversial suspension on lawyers, which was condemned both by the local and international community, he was removed from the post after being arrested over a February 2018 Supreme Court ruling ordering the release of nine political prisoners. He was sentenced to four months and 24 days after being convicted of deliberately hiding from the police and obstructing law enforcement, and was released in November 2018 after completing his sentence.

Also at Tuesday’s judiciary committee meeting, chair and North-Maafannu constituency MP Imthiyaz Fahmy asked whether they were putting the blame on someone else.

Responding to this, DJA’s spokesperson Faisal Adam said that the administrator was not putting blame on anyone, rather stating that there is no proof of an order to suspend these lawyers.

Their suspensions were lifted only after they apologized to the DJA.