Court schedules MJA's parliament privileges case

High Court has scheduled the case filed by Maldives Journalist Association (MJA) requesting to invalidate certain clauses within the Parliament Privileges Act.

An official from MJA said that they had received a summoning chit from High Court to be present at the court at 10:00 am on the 30th of April 2013.

The Association has asked the High Court to invalidate Articles 17 (a), 18 (a) and 18 (b) of the Parliament Privileges Act as they contradict with Article 28 and Article 53 of the Constitution, which guarantees the to freedom of the press, and the right of all citizens to attain and retain assistance of legal counsel.

Article 18 (b) states that any person who does not answer questions after being summoned by a parliament committee would be deemed to have disobeyed the orders of the parliament, and shall be subjected to a fine of between MVR 1,000 and MVR 3,000 or imprisonment for six months.