Supreme Court rejects petition to dismiss Speaker Nasheed

The Supreme Court has rejected the constitutional petition submitted to the court last week seeking to oust Parliament Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed.

The court’s registrar made the decision to reject the petition Monday.

However, the applicant reserves the right to submit the petition to the court’s Council of Justices.

The petition was submitted to the court by Ahmed Thalib, an attorney-at-law, on Wednesday, November 9, accusing the Nasheed of violating his oath of office by representing Sri Lanka at the COP27 Summit in Egypt.

Thalib argued that representing a foreign sovereign power on a state-paid salary and in violating of his oath of loyalty to Maldives is in violation of Article 75 of the Constitution, which states that MPs must act in the best interest of Maldives and the Maldivian people, and must not abuse their position to promote personal interests of themselves or another.

He asked the court to declare Nasheed’s actions as unlawful and establish he had lost the legitimacy of his position as an MP.

Nasheed’s representation of Sri Lanka has sparked criticism from both Maldivian and Sri Lankan MPs.