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Parliament amends the judges act to increase the number of Supreme Court judges

Parliament amends the judges act to increase the number of Supreme Court judges


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Parliament of the Maldives has voted to amend the judges act to increase the number of Supreme Court judges.

At the moment there are 5 justices in the Supreme Court. The amendment increases it to 7. 

A total of 74 members took part in the vote and all the members voted in favor of the amendment. The amendment was submitted to the parliament by MP Ali Azim the leader of MDP’s parliamentary group. 

After the Supreme Court was formed under the new constitution the Supreme Court had 7 judges. However an amendment was passed in 2014 to reduce the number to 5. Many believed that the change was brought to remove the then Chief Justice Faiz and Justice Muhthashim Adnan from the bench. 

Until the formation of the Supreme Court under the new constitution, the head of the judiciary was the president.