Maldives parliament passes to dismiss two Supreme Court justices

The People’s Majlis has on Monday passed to dismiss two Supreme Court Justices.

While two separate votes were taken at Monday’s sitting, 69 MPs voted in favour of both dismissals.

The Majlis accepted the motion to dismiss Chief Justice Dr. Ahmed Abdulla Didi and Justice Adam Mohamed Abdulla, last Thursday.

While Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed, has requested the committee to meet on Thursday and conclude its review by Monday, the committee has since met and approved the motion.

The judiciary committee's only task was to ensure that JSC's decision was in line with the laws and regulations, with all MPs in attendance at Thursday's committee meeting agreeing that it was. The MPs unanimously voted to approve the JSC report.

JSC made the decision to remove the two justices at a meeting on Wednesday, as well as to give them a 60-day suspension, after completing investigations into disciplinary issues against the justices.

As such, the commission said that the investigation into the respective complaints against the justices showed that their actions were against the judges’ code of conduct, and against Article 154 (b) of the Constitution.

While Article 154 (b) allows judges to be removed through parliament if found to be guilty of gross misconduct, JSC made the decision to submit the motion to parliament under the powers granted to it through the JSC Act.

Judges can only be removed if two-thirds majority of the People’s Majlis members present and voting support the resolution.