Court imposes 2-year ban on “Haveeru” employees

Civil Court, on Sunday, banned “Haveeru” employees from working in any other media station, ordering Ministry of Home Affairs to penalize any employee who does, within the next 2 years.

All operations of “Haveeru” – the countries longest running private media network – was put on hold as shareholders battle out the dispute over its ownership in court.

“Haveeru” shareholders; Ibrahim Rasheed Moosa (H. Meerubahaaru Aage), Abdulla Farooq Hassan (G. Kokkiri) and Mohamed Naeem (H. Timeless) filed the lawsuit with Civil Court to clarify the profits received by “Haveeru” up until now, and to obtain their share of the profits after the High Court ruled in their favor.

The Civil Court verdict did not make mention of the amount of profit made by “Haveeru” or the amount due to the shareholders.

The court imposed a 2-year ban on “Haveeru” employees, ordering Ministry of Home Affairs to penalize any “Haveeru” employee working in any other media station.

The ban takes effect immediately.

The court said that media stations were heavily reliant on its employees. And that “Haveeru” had suffered enormous damage when all the staff of the station resigned from the station at once.

The verdict said that all assets of Haveeru News Agency – founded by Dr. Mohamed Zahir Hussain (H. Neel Villa) and the other three shareholders were transferred to Haveeru Media Group to hide the assets and money of the three shareholders.

And that Haveeru News, Online and all assets and money under the name of Haveeru were transferred under Haveeru Media Group, illegally.

Court ordered that all the assets be transferred back under the ownership of Haveeru News Agency, and that the name “Haveeru Media Group” be changed.

The court said that no other company can be founded under the name “Haveeru” and that the brand belonged to Haveeru News Agency.

The court noted in their verdict that the fact that the three shareholders had not received their due rights in the past was no reason why they should not receive them now. And that they should receive their rights, taken away by Zahir Hussain illegally.

The court said that though Zahir Hussain had invested for the management of “Haveeru” himself, he had done so after taking away the rights of the other three shareholders. And that the other three shareholders were also due a share of the profits even though Zahir Hussain had taken out a bank loan in his name to run “Haveeru”.

The court said that an asset obtained in violation of rights did not become one’s own no matter how long the individual may have had it for.

High Court ruled that Haveeru News Agency wasn’t just owned by Chairman Zahir Hussain, but that Farooq, Ibrahim Rasheed and Mohamed Naeem also had a share in the company, in August, 2015.

Supreme Court had rejected Zahir Hussain’s request for appeal.