The Attorney General's Office has introduced a bill to change the composition of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to seven members instead of the current 10 members.
Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath said the bill seeks to remove the member appointed by the President, the speaker of parliament and president of the Civil Service Commission from the JSC.
“The main change proposed to the parliament is to fix the number of JSC members at seven by excluding the member appointed by the President, the speaker of parliament and the president of the Civil Service Commission,” Riffath said in a tweet.
In addition to the three members proposed to be removed, the commission currently consists of a Supreme Court judge, a High Court judge, a judge from lower courts, a member of parliament, the Attorney General, a member selected from the lawyers and a member selected from the public.
The amendment to the composition of the JSC was submitted to parliament after consultation with civil society organizations and relevant stakeholders, Riffath said.
Riffath said the government’s pledge to reform the judiciary has been fulfilled following the proposed amendments to the JSC’s composition.
"Judicial reform is one of the most important promises made by the government in the field of social justice. This work started in 2019. So far, nine relevant bills have been introduced in parliament. With today's two bills, this reform work has been completed," he said.
