News Desk
MALE’ — Under the Constitution, the President of the Maldives holds a designated seat on the Judicial Service Commission, filled by a member he appoints to represent him. That appointment matters because the JSC is the body that oversees every judge in the country, from the magistrate courts in the outer islands to the Supreme Court bench in Male’.
President Dr Mohamed Muizzu filled that seat on Thursday, appointing Ali Naseer Gasim as his representative on the commission. Naseer was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Ali Rasheed Hussain. He has previously served as a member of the Police Board.
The appointment fills the vacancy left by Yazmeed Mohamed, who resigned on Tuesday after audio recordings purportedly of his voice circulated on social media. In the recordings, a voice urges people not to vote for the PNC in the local council elections and suggests a drug case could be resolved without going through the Prosecutor General’s Office. A JSC conduct investigation was under way at the time of his resignation. Yazmeed, from a powerful family in Ga. Vilingili with deep roots in the PPM and PNC administration, had been appointed to the commission on 23 February 2025 and had no judicial experience.
The JSC’s mandate is broad and consequential. It appoints judges, investigates complaints against them, sets ethical standards and can remove members of the bench. Its composition is designed to prevent any single branch of government from controlling it. Under Article 158 of the Constitution, the commission consists of the Speaker of the People’s Majlis, a Supreme Court judge other than the Chief Justice, a High Court judge, a lower court judge, a member of parliament, a member appointed by the Majlis from the general public, the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, a member appointed by the President, the Attorney General and a lawyer elected from among lawyers.
The separation of powers is the architecture underneath all of this. The executive, legislature and judiciary are meant to operate independently, with each branch checked by the others. The JSC sits at that intersection, tasked specifically with ensuring the judiciary remains independent from political pressure.
That scrutiny runs in one direction. The JSC applies rigorous codes of conduct to judges. It investigates their behaviour, examines their decisions and can end their careers.
The executive and legislature hold comparable power. Ministers control public spending and policy. MPs pass the laws judges are then required to apply. But no independent commission applies equivalent conduct scrutiny to ministers, MPs or presidential appointees. Corruption, embezzlement and the misuse of power are not confined to the bench. The Maldives has seen enough of all three across every branch of government to know that. The judges are watched. The question the constitution does not fully answer is who watches everyone else.
