Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain has said that the judicial system cannot be run properly unless it becomes financially independent.

He made this remark while speaking at a ceremony held to mark the anniversary of the Drug Court.

The chief justice said that the courts need to become financially independent in order to be free of influence and pressure from different groups.

He said that the Department of Judicial Administration (JDA) has requested the relevant government authorities to allocate adequate budgets for the courts, and expressed concern over the fact that this problem has thus far not been solved.

Faiz said that due to lack of budget, the Criminal Court has no choice but to stop its work regarding the determination of the period of custody for suspects, and similarly, the Family Court may also have to stop performing marriage ceremonies.

He said that while the law obligates compensation for employees who work overtime, none of the courts have money to pay its employees for overtime. He said that the work of the courts is delayed as a result of staff not being able to work extra hours.

“This is the state of even the Supreme Court of the Maldives. From next month onwards, the Supreme Court does not have funds to pay its staff for overtime. The law stipulates that people cannot be asked to work overtime if they cannot be compensated for those hours. The law obligates compensation for employees who work overtime. The current situation is that we don’t have money to pay overtime. Today is the 31st of this month. We are worried about how the judiciary can be run from next month onwards,” he said.

He said that public services cannot be stopped until the money can be obtained through submitting the issue to the parliament, and called on the finance minister to arrange a way to remunerate the staff of the courts for overtime as soon as possible.