The process to make judges permanent is constitutional – JSC

Friday, July 30th, 2010

The process to make the judges permanent are not being conducted with a necessary law, but through the necessary articles of the Constitution, Mujuthaz Fahumy, President of the Judicial Service Commission has said. He also said that the arguments against the process is misleading the public and do not capture an accurate picture of the process.

“The claim that we are making them permanent for 70 years is misleading. Constitution has given the right for judges to work for judiciary until the age of 70” he said speaking to Miadhu Daily.

“The spirit of the constitution is that all except political appointees and contract staff would not be sacked as far as they continue to do their job and refrain from criminal or other kinds of records. Hence, judges can also be in office until they reach an age of 70 and this is very clear in the constitution” he said.

He also added that much of the judges in the Maldives are old and within the next 70 years 50% of the Maldives judges would have to resign as they would reach the retiring age.

Mujuthaaz also added that none would be appointed as a judge, unless they meet the requirements set forth in the article 149 of the Constitution.

Article 149 entitled “Qualifications of Judges” states that “(a) A person appointed as a Judge in accordance with law, must possess the educational qualifications, experience and recognized competence necessary to discharge the duties and responsibilities of a Judge, and must be of high moral character, (b) In addition to the qualifications specified in article (a), a Judge shall possess the following qualifications:- 1. be a Muslim and a follower of a Sunni school of Islam; 2. be twenty-five years of age; 3. has not been convicted of an offence for which a hadd is prescribed in Islam, criminal breach of trust, or bribery; 4. be of sound mind, (c) A person appointed to be a Judge of the Supreme Court, shall be at least thirty years of age; possess at least seven years experience as a Judge or practicing lawyer or both as a Judge and a practicing lawyer, and must be educated in Islamic Shari’ah or law. (d) The People’s Majlis shall pass a statute relating to Judges”.

“Each and every judge is appointed because they pass the criteria and we cannot say that particular judges are not qualified enough. And Judicial Service Commission members should refrain from doing so because that is illegal. This would undermine the credibility of the judiciary and JSC and infringes the rights of the individual judges and that is why this is not allowed” he said.

He also noted that the code of conduct for judges was endorsed by the JSC with the support of all members who were present at that particular meeting and that amendments and revisions suggested by the members during the meeting would also incorporated into the code.

“On criminal records, some of the crimes that are noted as a crime at the time offense are not crimes any more due to change in laws. Now we are studying what are the criminal records these judges have. For instance some has criminal records on speaking about religion and crimes of the sort” said Mujuthaaz, noting that there 37 judges with criminal record who under study.

However, JSC meeting to make judges permanent was closed early yesterday due to lack of quorum, As Shuaib Abdul Rahman, member from the public to the JSC left the room. Shuaib later explained that he walked out because he believes that “judges of extremely lower disciplinary standards and moral ethics” are being declared permanent.

JSC consists of 10 members of which 6 were present in yesterdays meeting. When Shuiab left only 5 members were present.

Miadhu Daily also understands that one member who regularly attends JSC meetings were unable to attend due to an emergency and two other members were not in Male.

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