Parliament backs extended period for judges to respond to allegations
It is not clear why Hisaan did not support the amendments, and she has not responded to questions on the matter yet.
By
Mohamed Muzayyin Nazim
Parliament on Monday passed a bill to extend the deadline for cases investigated by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and give more time to the judges involved in these cases to respond despite the commission's president and Thulhaadhoo MP Hisaan Hussain vetoing the amendments.
The bill, introduced by Maradhoo MP from MDP Ibrahim Shareef on behalf of the government at the end of May, was passed in Monday's sitting with some minor changes brought about by the parliament’s Judiciary Committee.
Before the judiciary committee could vote on the decision of the bill, its chairman and MDP MP from Maafannu North Constituency Imtiyaz Fahmy proposed an amendment, asking to improve the interpretation of a clause in the bill.
Hisaan voted against the motion, supported by West Henveiru MP Hassan Latheef. Then 53 other members who took part in the vote supported the amendment.
The entire bill was passed by parliament with a vote of 54 members. Hisaan did not vote at all on any component of the bill.
One of the main amendments in the law to change procedures to be followed in cases investigated by the JSC is to change certain periods of time.
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As per the current law, the committee has five days to decide on accepting the issues filed with the commission.
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One of the amendments in the bill is to extend the period to 14 days
The amendments were made to make the recommendations more clear as proposed by the government:
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The committee should take a decision on whether to look into the matter within 14 days, excluding official holidays from the date of filing of a complaint, and then send the decision to the Commission.
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Judges have been allowed 14 days to submit his defence line and further information to the inquiry committee. As per the law now, the judge has only five days to submit his paperwork.
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From the date of receipt of the inquiry report to the judge, a hearing should be held within seven days without including holidays; now there is only five days allowed.
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Once the final report prepared by the inquiry committee is submitted to the commission, it should be sent to the respective judge (MP Imthiyaz proposed amendment to this issue, to improve the interpretation of this clause).
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The Commission shall take a decision only after allowing the judge the opportunity to respond to the findings of the report.
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If the matter in context is outside the jurisdiction of the judge, the judge is free to apply for additional time.
The amendments, which were passed by parliament on Monday, will come into effect on the day the President ratifies the bill.
'JSC doesn't want judges to be given a chance'
It is not clear why Hisaan did not support the amendments, and she has not responded to questions on the matter yet.
While presenting the committee's report to the parliament floor before the vote, the committee’s chair MP Imthiyaz said that the Judiciary Committee had recommended to the JSC to change the system of taking action against judges depending solely on the report prepared by the commission.
"However, the JSC, in response, said that they wanted things to be as they are now," he said.
Imtiyaz said the reason for the parliament’s judiciary committee’s suggestion was because:
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Sometimes findings of the inquiry committee and the commission differs
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We need to increase confidence in the system so that such conflicts do not rise
Imthiyaz said the suggestion was dropped after the JSC objected to it. He said that now the bill has been decided by the committee based on the views received on the bill and the views of the committee members. He also pointed out that the committee's report was unanimously approved.
In the case of the then High Court judges Abdul Rauf Ibrahim and Abdulla Hameed, who were sent to parliament for removal by the JSC in April, the judges said that they were not allowed to respond to the commission's final report. At that time, the committee decided that JSC had decided on both the cases wrongly.
The JSC had said at the time that the two judges were sent for removal as per procedure. Against the judiciary committee's decision, the parliament voted to remove Abdulla Hameed as a judge. Before the vote could be taken, Abdul Rauf resigned from his post.
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