High Court issues stay order to repay Dharumavantha Hospital contractor

The Maldives High Court on Tuesday, February 6, 2025, issued a stay order on the Civil Court judgment demanding Maldives government compensate Dharumavantha Hospital’s developer, Singapore’s Chang Hua Construction with MVR 200,000.

The government signed the contract with Chang Hua for the development of a 25-storey hospital structure next Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) on March 1, 2016. This was during the administration of former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

Chang Hua was awarded USD 140 million for the contract. Due to the taxable nature of the project, Chang Hua filed a lawsuit with the Civil Court citing the government bore responsibility of paying taxes, and added the project’s cost of USD 140 million was excluding taxes.

The Civil Court held the case in favor of Chang Hua on March 24, last year and ordered Maldives government to settle MVR 227,560 in taxes Chang Hua paid, in lump sum within a one-month period to the contractor.

While the contractor has sought Civil court’s enforcement on its judgment owing to Maldives government’s failure to settle this money, the High Court on Tuesday issued the stay order.

In its decision, the first appellate court said that the absence of an injunction could cause interruption to justice.

Following the High Court’s stay order, Civil Court judge Zulaikha Sheeza held that Chang Hua’s lawsuit seeking judicial enforcement on the 2024 judgement was no longer possible.

Although Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) launched investigation into Dharumavantha Hospital development project, citing possible corruption, the commission later claimed it did not find any such conduct.