Case filed to revoke city status of Thinadhoo
Thinadhoo was granted city status on August 31, 2023.
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A legal case has been filed in the High Court seeking to revoke the city status of GDh. Thinadhoo, which has less than 10,000 inhabitants.
According to the High Court registry, environment's state minister and lawyer Mohamed Raqib Ahmed filed a case against the President's Office on Thursday.
According to the documents of the case shared with Atoll Times newspaper, it is alleged that the population of Thinadhoo has been shown to reach 10,000 on invalid documents. These include:
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115 deaths included in the council's register to bring the population to 10,000
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Many duplicate ID cards on the council's list
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Comparing the Department of National Registration (DNR) registry list with the council's list reveals many legal issues
The list obtained by the DNR under the Access to Information Act shows that as of the 17th of this month, the population of Thinadhoo is 7,900.
The case seeks the annulment of the decision to declare Thinadhoo as a city and all administrative measures taken in connection with the decision.
The High Court has not yet decided whether to accept the case.
Thinadhoo was granted city status on August 31, 2023. The announcement was made by former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih at a party rally in Thinadhoo as part of his presidential campaign.
When President Solih announced the city status of Thinadhoo, the Department of National Registration showed that there were 7,906 people registered in the island.
However, according to the Elections Commission (EC) report on the administrative constituencies of the parliament, the registered population of Thinadhoo is 10,150, with 5,076 for the northern constituency and 5,074 for the southern constituency.
Many people were questioning how the island's population increased so quickly in such a short period of time.
