High Court tosses case on police officers, accuses AGO of judicial manipulation

The High Court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal filed by the state contesting the Civil Court’s decision to overturn the move by Police Board to terminate senior police officers back in 2022, after accusing the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) of manipulating the court system in their favor.

In October 2022, the Police Board decided to dismiss seven top police officials. They are:

• Then-Superintendent Mohamed Dawood
• Then-Assistant Commissioner Farhad Fikury
• Then-Chief Superintendent Ahmed Shuhad
• Then-Assistant Commissioner Mohamed Jamsheed
• Then-Assistant Commissioner Ahmed Mohamed
• Then-Superintendent Ismail Shameem
• Then-Chief Superintendent Abdulla Shareef

Five of them, excluding Farhad and Shuhad, contested the decision with the Civil Court, citing lack of opportunity to defend themselves and lack of authority of the Police Board them.

They won the case in December 2022. This decision was appealed by the state with the High Court, which issued a stay order on the Civil Court ruling in January 2023 as it heard the appeal.

But on Wednesday, the court decided by majority consensus of the bench to dismiss the case, which has been stuck in limbo for two years.

The High Court had held closed hearings in the case on grounds of national security concerns.

In making the decision to throw out the case, the court cited violation of the integrity of the appeal, lack of clarity on the stand for appeal, lack of proper utilization of court resources, and grounds for loss of public confidence in and respect for court decisions.

The case was dismissed by a majority of Hassan Shafeeu and Abdul Maaniu Hussain. Meanwhile, Mohamed Shaneez Abdullah opinioned that the court needed to make a decision on the matter, but he agreed with other judges that the state had abused its authority to misuse the court system.