The Supreme Court made a decision earlier this month to suspend a total of 54 lawyers in response to a petition they had signed calling for judicial reform.
The petition cited various ways in which decisions of local courts had obstructed legal principles or completely violated doctrines.
While they were all suspended on the grounds of ‘contempt of court’, the mass suspension was met with criticism both domestically and abroad – with the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific having passed a resolution on the Maldives following it.
In a similar case of concern for the state of the judiciary and eagerness to uphold the rule of law coinciding with contempt, the Judicial Services Commission has had Chief Judge Hassan Saeed of the Family Court in suspension for over a year-and-a-half.
Judge Saeed was suspended on February 22nd last year after the commission decided he was in contempt for criticizing the High Court.
The Judicial Services Commission had heard a complaint that Judge Saeed had said that the High Court’s bench of adjudicators was ‘highly corrupt’ and were operating under the protection of a powerful state entity.
Saeed had sought to review the commission’s decision through a case with the Civil Court. After the court refused to grant an injunction to halt his suspension until the investigation is complete, Saeed withdrew his case.
The commission had ruled to suspend Judge Saeed until its investigation into the matter is complete. RaajjeMV understands that commission members had compiled a report of the allegations made against him, which the judge has responded to.
However, the commission is yet to make a decision about Judge Saeed’s position in the judiciary.
