Govt. to propose changes to law to revise how JSC is constituted

The government has decided to propose amendments to the law in order to revise how the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is constituted.

In a statement on Thursday night, Attorney General’s Office (AG Office) said that the bill proposing amendments to Article 58 of the Constitution will be drafted and submitted to the parliament during the ongoing third session of the year.

The office detailed that discussions will be held with Supreme Court, High Court, lower courts, JSC and other stakeholders starting next week – in order to explore recommendations and ideas for the bill.

Reforming how the JSC is constituted is an electoral pledge of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). The lack of efforts to fulfill the pledge till now had garnered much criticism from the public to the government.

Opposition Progressive Party of Maldives’ (PPM) parliament group member, Mahibadhoo MP Ahmed Thoriq had submitted bills proposing amendments to reform JSC on two occasions. However, the bill was rejected both times, by an MDP-dominated parliament.

How JSC is constituted at present:

• Parliament Speaker
• Representative from parliament
• Representative of the president
• Representative from Supreme Court
• Representative from High Court
• Representative from lower courts
• Representative from the public appointed by parliament
• Attorney General
• Representative from lawyers

The current constitution of JSC has led to many suspecting government influence on the judiciary garnering constant criticism.