Supreme Court on Wednesday ended hearings on the disqualification challenge by Thulusdhoo MP Mohamed Waheed Ibrahim.
Elections Commission had disqualified four lawmakers who were dismissed from the ruling party under the recent Supreme Court anti-defection ruling to announce by-elections.
Along with Waheed, Dhidhdhoo lawmaker Abdul Latheef Mohamed, Maduvvaree MP Mohamed Ameeth and Villingili MP Saud Hussain had all challenged their disqualifications at the top court.
During the first hearing of the challenge on Tuesday, Waheed's lawyer argued that his client had been dismissed from PPM by the party's disciplinary committee on March 28 of which was duly notified to both the elections commission and his client.
If Waheed's dismissal was made official in March, how was the party's disciplinary committee again able to probe a complaint against his client and dismiss him again from the party in July, Waheed's lawyer questioned.
In response, the state attorney argued that the PPM disciplinary committee's decision was informed to Waheed and subsequently was only copied to the elections commission which had resulted the removal of the lawmaker from the party's member registry.
But the party had officially asked the elections commission to remove Waheed from the registry on July 18 after the PPM disciplinary committee reviewed the complaint against the lawmaker, the state attorney stressed.
PPM has been devastated by a revolt after as many as 10 lawmakers backed an opposition led move to unseat the parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh.
PPM has been accused of engineering the constitutional dispute case asking the Supreme Court to disqualify MPs who defect or violate party whip-lines and or are formally removed from their respective party.
The three judge bench hearing the case unanimously ruled in favour of the government. The court had also ordered relevant institutions to bring into effect an anti-defection law.
The ruling party however, had refused to allow the lawmakers to leave saying that their requests can only be processed after their respective disciplinary hearing are concluded.
