Ghani appointed as new Chief Justice

Abdul Ghani Mohamed has been appointed by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu as the new Chief Justice of the Maldives.

Ghani took his oath as the Chief Justice and was officially appointed to the role in a ceremony held at the President’s Office on Wednesday morning. His oath was administered by Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Hameed.

Ghani’s appointment comes a day after he secured the unanimous backing of the Parliament for the role.

The role of Chief Justice got vacant following the retirement of Ahmed Muthasim Adnan back in July.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) received applications from three candidates for the vacant Chief Justice role; Ghani, Abdulla Mohamed, a sitting judge at the Family Court, and Shujau Usman, the former chief judge of High Court.

All three were interviewed by the JSC on Saturday, after which the commission recommended Ghani for the role. President Muizzu sent a letter to the Parliament asking for approval to appoint Ghani for the role on Sunday. The letter was read at the Parliament on Monday, and approved by the Judiciary Committee the same day. Ghani passed the floor vote with a unanimous vote of 62 on Tuesday.

Ghani began his judicial career in 2000. He served as a judge at the Civil Court, before moving up as the chief judge of High Court, and then as a justice at the Supreme Court.

Ghani, who previously also served as president of the JSC, was most recently serving as the president of the Tax Appeal Tribunal.

Ghani was previously appointed to the Supreme Court in 2018 in the wake of the infamous February 1 court order, which led to the dismissal of then-Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Justice Ali Hameed Mohamed. But he was dismissed from the court in 2019, in a purge of the Supreme Court by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) administration.