Magistrates summoned fails to attend Majlis subcommittee

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

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The three magistrates of the Hulhumale’ Magistrate Court summoned by the Peoples’ Majlis Subcommittee failed to attend, a member of the committee said.

Majlis Subcommittee on government has summoned the three magistrates concerned to appear before it yesterday at 11:00 am.

The member said that the magistrates informed the committee that they will not be attending near the end of the time the meeting was scheduled on. The informant added that the magistrates did not mention the reason.

This is the second time the magistrates were summoned by the committee. In response to the decision by the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Government to summon before it the three Majistrates on the bench to hear the criminal case against former President Mohamed Nasheed, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) stated that the interference of the judicial process by the Peoples’ Majlis was directly in contravention to the separation of powers and the guarantee of an independent Judiciary. The commission stated that the Majlis should stop interfering in the judiciary and should respect the separation of powers as guaranteed under the constitution.

The Commission stated that that it had sole authority to make judges accountable for their actions, and that there is no law which allowed any committee other than the JSC to hold judges accountable.

The JSC cited the Constitution and Article 21 (b) of the Law on the Judicial Services Commission as giving it sole power over holding judges accountable. The commission also sited Article 141 (c) of the Constitution which states that “No officials performing public functions, or any other persons, shall interfere with and influence the functions of the courts.”.

In addition to this JSC cited Article 9 of the Bill on Judges as legal foundation for its arguments against judicial interference by the Majlis.

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