Bill on amendments to Judicature Act to committee

The bill proposing amendments to the Judicature Act has been forwarded to committee stages on Monday.

During the Parliament session, the bill was sent to the Parliament’s Judiciary Committee for further investigation with 59 members voting in favor.

This pill was submitted to Parliament by Keyodhoo MP Hussain Gasim on behalf of the government.

The bill proposes to allow those with diploma certification to become magistrates.

Although the bill was passed on to the committee stages, some members of the Parliament expressed concern over it.

During the debate held on the bill, MP Adam Shareef said that it was 12 years ago, that the law was written dictating diploma as the qualification for judges of magistrate courts.

Criticizing this, MP Shareef said that if looked at systematically, a degree takes three years, and hence in a diploma, only one by third of that degree can be obtained.

“During President Maumoon’s time, suddenly courts were established, and people were brought to Male’, given 10 months of training, a short duration of training in courts to train judges. But the world has changed from then.”

He went on to note that the courts of today deal with large and complex cases.

Moreover, he asked whether a diploma as a qualification was enough when in some instances international factors and complex laws get combined into it.

He expressed that those in courts must at least have a degree qualification, while those in the supreme court should obtain a master's degree.