JSC ‘reaffirmed a lost basic right’: Speaker
Speaker Nasheed said the Supreme Court has no right to take case-related documents from the Civil Court
Supreme Court justices
Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed has said that Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has reaffirmed a lost basic right by giving a warning to three Supreme Court justices.
JSC has stated that it decided to give a warning to Chief Justice Abdulla Didi, and justices Abdulla Areef and Adam Mohamed for obtaining Civil Court case records, which was a violation of the constitutional rights of the plaintiff.
Speaker Nasheed said the Supreme Court has no right to take case-related documents from the Civil Court.
RaajjeMV understands that the records are of a 2014 debt-related case regarding Mohamed Ikram, the former Deputy Managing Director of state media PSM.
The Civil Court verdict stated that Ikram was given 18 years to do construction at M Natheeja but that he had done the work against the agreement and had failed to complete construction within the deadline. Therefore, the court ruled to terminate the agreement and ordered Ikram to pay MVR 922,400 to the owners of M Natheeja, Ashra Ali and Shirumeena Ali.
The plaintiff had filed another Civil Court case after Ikram failed to pay the amount, and the Supreme Court obtained the court records the next year, in 2015.
At the time, Ikram’s wife Latheefa Gasim was a member of JSC, which is tasked with investigating judges.
Speaker Nasheed, who is currently the JSC President, said that every citizen has the right to appeal and that the Supreme Court had violated judicial conduct by obtaining lower court records, adding that judges should not attempt to intervene in the work of other judges.
JSC has given the justices 30 days to respond to its report.
The three justices were also involved in changing the Supreme Court order issued on February 1, 2018, which ordered the release of nine political prisoners.
