The amendment to Judges Act and proposed Anti-Defection Law has been scheduled for lawmaker deliberation on Monday's sitting.
The amendment comes days after police had sought formal charges against chief justice Abdulla Saeed and top court judge Ali Hameed.
While the two bills will be deliberated at the parliament session exclusively by pro-government parliamentarians, the opposition members are expected to continue their stance of boycotting the sittings.
Members of the opposition have expressed their concerns over the amendment on Judges Act as well as the proposed Anti-Defection law.
Meanwhile it has been rumored that several pro-government lawmakers have their own concerns regarding both Acts which the ruling party's PG leader shunned stating that only a few members have contradicting perspectives. He assured that the party will convince all its members in favor of the bills through committee discussions.
Not much details of the draft law submitted by the chief government lawmaker Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik are known. But according to the summary, the Anti-Defection law would specify the regulations and conditions under which by-elections would be held following a disqualification.
The draft law comes in the wake of a top court stay order the relevant institutions to hold off on the reinstatement of a dozen opposition lawmakers disqualified over an earlier anti-defection ruling.
The court on February 1 had annulled its anti-defection ruling and ordered the country's electoral watchdog to re-instate the dozen rebel government lawmakers disqualified over the ruling. The Supreme Court said the anti-defection ruling was issued as a temporary solution to the constitutional dispute case filed by the state but insisted that the relevant authorities have failed to bring to effect an anti-defection law specified in the ruling.
Maldives ruling party on Wednesday submitted an amendment to the Judges Act designed to remove the two Supreme Court judges arrested under the state of emergency over the alleged plot to overthrow the government.
The first reading of the amendment was held in parliament during Wednesday's sitting which said judges convicted of a criminal offence would be automatically removed from office.
The amendment said a judge convicted of a criminal offence would be removed with immediate effect after the sentence. The amendment was also designed to bypass the constitutional article on removal of judges arguing that it does not relate to the conduct of judges.
The amendment said the judicial service commission (JSC) must suspend the judge with pay following his or her arrest. However, once the judge is formally charged he or she would cease to receive pay while he or she would be immediately removed from office if convicted.
The ruling party in its amendment has also limited the time for appeal. A convicted judge must file the first appeal within 10 days while first appellate court is given 30 days to arrive at a sentence. The same time frame has been afforded to the Supreme Court as the last stage of appeal.
The amendment comes days after police had sought formal charges against chief justice Abdulla Saeed and top court judge Ali Hameed.
The island nation has been embroiled in fresh political turmoil after the Supreme Court on February 1 ordered the immediate release of jailed political leaders including self-exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed.
President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on February 5 had declared a 15 day state of emergency after his last ditch attempt to convince the top court to revoke the order failed, purged the Supreme Court by arresting two judges and the remaining political leaders and ultimately had the order revoked.
As the state of emergency expired, president Yameen had got the parliament contentiously extend it by another 30 days.
President Yameen is facing mounting pressure even within the security forces after exploiting the rights suspended under emergency state to crackdown hard on the opposition as police have made a series of high profile arrests including former president Gayoom, three lawmakers, chief justice Abdulla Saeed, top court judge Ali Hameed and the chief judicial administrator.
Less than a day after the arrest of the two judges, the remaining three judges rescinded its ruling to release the political leaders referring to the concerns raised by president Yameen in the letters he had sent to the chief justice hours before state of emergency was declared.
The accusations against Gayoom included bribing lawmakers and judges to influence their authority while the deposed ruling party leader has also been accused of creating discord within the security forces to back the overthrow of his half-brother's government.
The two top court judges are accused of accepting bribes to influence Supreme Court rulings, abuse of power and blocking the functioning of the entire justice system.
In addition to Nasheed, the other top political leaders named in the now rescinded order included Jumhoory Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim, religiously conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla, former defence minister Mohamed Nazim, former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor and Gayoom's lawmaker son Faris Maumoon.
