Shafeeu and former PNC parliamentary candidate Rauf appointed to High Court; Niyaz to Criminal Court

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has announced the appointment of two judges to the High Court and one to the Criminal Court.

According to an announcement by the JSC on Saturday night, the two candidates appointed to vacancies at the High Court are: Ismail Shafeeu and Abdul Rauf Ibrahim, the latter of whom is a former High Court judge who resigned in face of allegations of misconduct.

Meanwhile, the candidate appointed to the Criminal Court is Ahmed Niyaz.

Two seats at the High Court became vacant following the retirement of long-serving judge Mohamed Niyaz and the resignation of Mohamed Faisal.

Of their two replacements, Rauf had resigned from the High Court in 2022 after the JSC found him guilty of misconduct. After leaving the court, he ran an unsuccessful campaign bid in the 2024 parliamentary elections as a candidate from the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC).

The decision to appoint a PNC-aligned candidate to the High Court comes after a similar move in the middle of last year, when the JSC picked senior PNC activist Mohamed Shaheed for appointment to the superior court. But he later withdrew his candidacy following public backlash and also a court case challenging his appointment.