Court petition seeks to halt Shaheed's appointment as High Court judge

A case has been filed in the Civil Court seeking an interim order to halt the Judicial Service Commission’s (JSC) decision to appoint Mohamed Shaheed as a judge of the High Court.

The case was submitted by Ahmed Naushad, a lawyer at the Prosecutor General’s Office on Thursday. In the petition, Naushad argued that Shaheed does not meet the qualifications required for the position of High Court judge.

Naushad stated that there were candidates with extensive experience in the legal field who had also applied for the post. He claimed that proceeding with Shaheed’s appointment would result in unfair treatment of other qualified applicants. Naushad has therefore requested the court to issue an interim order preventing the appointment from going ahead.

The JSC has also approved the appointment of former High Court judge Abdulla Jameel Moosa to the bench.

The two vacancies in the High Court arose following the appointment of two former judges to the Supreme Court. These included the appointment of former High Court Chief Justice Hossain Shaheed, who replaced Justice Husnu Suood after his resignation from the Supreme Court in March last year.

One of the other vacancies was filled following the dismissal of Mahaz Ali Zahir and Dr Azmiralda Zahir.

The three judges had previously been suspended in February last year to prevent the Supreme Court from proceeding with a case regarding an interim injunction. That injunction sought to block the enforcement of a constitutional amendment that would have led to the disqualification of parliamentarians expelled from their political parties.