PNC’s Azaan walks out amid vote on Supreme Court bench bill

Ahmed Azaan Marzooq, a parliamentarian from the ruling People’s Nation Congress (PNC), walked out of the chamber on Wednesday morning, as the Parliament began voting on controversial government legislature to downsize the Supreme Court bench from seven to five justices.

The amendment to the Judicature Act was submitted on Sunday night by Holhudhoo MP Abdul Sattar Mohamed – a member of PNC. The bill was presented, debated on and accepted into the Parliament on Tuesday, and the Judiciary Committee passed it without any changes in a meeting held shortly after the vote.

The committee reconvened for an emergency meeting again on Tuesday night after it received Counsel General Fathimath Filza’s comments regarding the bill, in which she raised concerns regarding the fairness of removing two justices despite a lack of question over their competency. But the committee decided to disregard the concerns.

The Parliament took the floor vote on the bill in the morning after ejecting three parliamentarians from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) who protested against the legislature as well as the decision to ignore Filza’s counsel.

The bill passed with a majority vote of 68-9.

Azaan, who had chosen to skip Tuesday’s vote when the bill was accepted into the Parliament, was seen quietly walking out of the chamber as the voting began.

He later released a statement saying he believes the amendment violates the Constitution.

After Tuesday’s vote, PNC had threatened disciplinary action against parliamentarians who fail to back the bill. Azaan was removed from the PNC’s WhatsApp group for the party’s parliamentary group shortly after.

However, the PNC has not made an official comment regarding the decision to remove Azaan from the group.

The amendment to the Judicature Act is designed to downsize the Supreme Court’s bench from seven to five justices – meaning that two incumbent justices will need to be removed.

The  bill states that the removal of Supreme Court justices will require the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to submit a motion for dismissal to the Parliament if they deem a justice to be incompetent, and will require a two-thirds vote of parliamentarians present.

The JSC will be required to submit the names of the justices they want removed to the Parliament within five days the amendment takes effect, and the Parliament must make a decision within seven days once it is submitted.

The Supreme Court bench is currently composed of:

• Chief Justice Ahmed Muthasim Adnan
• Justice Dr. Azmiralda Zahir
• Justice Aisha Shujoon Mohamed
• Justice Mahaz Ali Zahir
• Justice Husnu Al-Suood
• Justice Ali Rasheed Hussain
• Justice Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim

The move to submit a bill to reduce the Supreme Court bench followed weekslong allegations by the MDP that the government is seeking to dismiss some of the members of the top court’s bench to influence a case challenging a contentious amendment to add anti-defection provisions to the Constitution.

The constitutional amendment in question was submitted, passed and ratified in quick succession on November 20. The controversial amendment added three more circumstances where parliamentarians will lose their seat, including if they are expelled from their political party.

Former Kendhoo MP Ali Hussain, an attorney-at-law, filed a constitutional case with the top court on November 24, arguing that the amendment violates key provisions of the Constitution, as well as the basic structure doctrine.

Hearings in the case began on February 17 – nearly three months after the case was filed. The state filed a motion to have the case tossed out, arguing that the Supreme Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear it. But the bench decided on February 18 to proceed with the case, and gave the state 10 days to build their case.

Opposition parties, including the MDP and the Democrats have questioned the timing of the bill, and accused the government of attempting attemting to influence the country's highest judicial authority and subvert judicial independence.

The rushed passage of the bill comes one hour ahead of a hearing scheduled at the Supreme Court regarding a request for an injunction to suspend the enforcement of the anti-defection clauses.

The number of justices in the Supreme Court bench have been changed twice in the last decade. In 2014, during former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration, the ruling party passed legislature reducing the bench from seven to five justices.

This was reversed in 2019 during former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s administration.