JSC: No issues in having political members

The current members of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) have said that they have no issues with having politically appointed members.

Despite this being the member’s stance on the issue, members of the public as well as many in the legal field have spoken out against it.

As part of the work commenced by the government to bring changes to the composition of JSC, based on the discussions held so far, and the relevant research work done, the commission has compiled a paper named ‘amending the composition of JSC’.

This paper was publicized by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on Thursday.

The discussions held on bringing changes to JSC involved those in the legal arena, and as such, the opinions of the Supreme Court, High Court, superior courts, magistrate courts, JSC, Bar Council and other lawyers were attained.

While none had questioned bringing changes to the composition, all the courts have been unanimous in the opinion that political appointees being in JSC was not a good idea.

In the discussion with the justices of the Supreme Court, they noted excluding members such as representatives of Parliament and the President of the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

Furthermore, the Supreme Court said that the Parliament has role in appointing members to JSC was not a positive thing and noted that having an established way for appointments was important.

Despite believing that JSC needed legal presence, the Supreme Court believed it should be the majority, as this could get in the way of taking action against lawyers when needed.

JSC is currently composed of:

• Parliament Speaker
• A representative from the Parliament
• A representative of the President
• A Supreme Court justice
• A High Court judge
• A lower court judge
• A representative of the general public approved by Parliament
• Civil Service Commission’s President
• Attorney General
• A representative of lawyers

Reforming how the JSC is constituted is an electoral pledge of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). The lack of efforts to fulfil 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.