Civil Court declines to review Parliament’s dismissal of EC member Mohamed Asif

The Civil Court ruled yesterday that it cannot review the case concerning Parliament’s decision to remove Mohamed Asif from his position as a member of the Elections Commission (EC).

Asif and then Vice President of the EC, Ali Nashath, were dismissed by Parliament in November last year over allegations of misconduct during the re-registration process for the 2023 Presidential Election and for allegedly selling confidential commission information. The Parliamentary Committee investigating the case had also implicated another EC member, Dr. Mohamed Zahir, but the floor voted not to remove him.

In its judgment, the Civil Court stated that under Article 177(a) of the Constitution, Parliament holds the authority to dismiss a member of the Elections Commission if a Parliamentary Committee determines that grounds for removal exist.

The court ruled that Asif's legal challenge effectively asked the judiciary to intervene in a constitutional power vested in Parliament, seeking to overturn a decision made by the legislative body. However, the court noted that Asif’s petition did not identify any procedural violations in the dismissal process that would justify judicial review.

The judgment emphasized that allowing the case to proceed would amount to providing a platform to challenge a parliamentary action taken within its constitutional mandate—contrary to Article 88 of the Constitution, which upholds the separation of powers.

Asif was dismissed from his post with more than one year left in his term.