Parliament's decision to count its total membership without vacant seats was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled today.
However, as Parliament has repealed changes made to the rules of procedure on counting the number of MPs, the court decided that it could not offer a legal remedy in the case filed by the state.
Delivering her opinion, Justice Dr. Azmirelda Zahir said the Constitution requires specific majorities for certain votes in order to ensure that major decisions on critical issues cannot be made by a few people.
Citing statements from members from the minutes of the special assembly that drafted the Constitution, Justice Azmirelda said the members put in place safeguards to not allow a particular political group or a small group of people to change fundamental constitutional matters in their interest.
"If vacant seats are to be considered as constituencies that do not exist, it would be something that thins that layer of protection determined in the Constitution," Justice Azmirelda said.
The other justices concurred with Justice Azmirelda's opinion.
Justice Azmiralda presided in the five-member bench of the Supreme Court that heard the case, which also included Justices Aisha Shujoon, Husnu Suood, Mahaz Ali and Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim.
After the Attorney General's Office filed the constitutional case on behalf of the state, the Supreme Court previously issued a stay order halting enactment of the changes brought to the Parliament's rules. However, the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party's (MDP) majority in Parliament passed a motion to not comply with the order.
The government filed the case contending that the reduction in the total membership from 87 MPs to 80 MPs was unconstitutional.
According to the Constitution, the President and Vice President can be impeached by a two-thirds majority of the total membership, which is 58 votes from the 87 MPs elected for the current term.
However, after seven MPs resigned to join the government, the opposition MDP-controlled Parliament changed the rules for counting the total membership as well as voting majorities and made the impeachment process easier.
The amendments brought to the rules stated that the total membership would be the number of sitting MPs, which brought down the total number of MPs from 80 to 87.
Parliament also made further changes after the case was filed with the Supreme Court. According to the new change, vacant seats would not be counted in determining the total membership if there is less than six months left for the next parliamentary elections. The Constitution does not require by-elections within that period if a seat is vacated.
The amendment changed the majority needed for parliamentary decisions and brought down the number of votes needed to impeach the President and Vice President to 54. With the current composition of Parliament, the combined 57 votes of MDP MPs and Democrats MPs would be enough to impeach the President.
