The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has voted not to follow Supreme Court's stay order on JSC's decision to suspend Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi.
Supreme Court earlier on Thursday issued a stay order regarding Judicial Service Commission (JSC)'s decision to suspend Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi.
A statement released by the JSC on Thursday night stated that the decision regarding Abdulla Didi's suspension is being implemented and in effect. The decision to ignore the Supreme Court's order was made with the agreement of five out of seven members present at Thursday night's JSC meeting.
The stay order was issued by the Supreme Court after Judge Abdulla Didi filed a constitutional dispute with the Supreme Court following his suspension.
The Judicial Service Commission had earlier made the decision to suspend Abdulla Didi due to an ongoing police investigation into a criminal offense. Now Speaker of the Parliament, former president Mohamed Nasheed had filed a complaint against the judge at the commission, claiming that Didi had accepted a bribe of US$ 1 million to jail Nasheed in 2015 while he was on the Criminal Court bench that sentenced Nasheed.
In the constitutional dispute raised by Didi, he stated that the case filed against him by Nasheed is in violation of the Maldivian constitution, the Judges Act, and the policies of the judiciary and that of JSC. Therefore, while JSC has temporarily relieved Didi of his duties until his suspension is lifted, the judge made a request at the Supreme Court to dismiss JSC's
decision, and requested for a stay order until the case is concluded.
The Supreme Court accepted the case and issued the stay order, and ordered all authorities not to proceed with the suspension or any other other course of action against Judge Didi regarding the bribery allegations.
Speaker of the parliament Mohamed Nasheed
