Tuesday
16th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
High Court of the Maldives.
The request for information on the number of Indian military personnel in the Maldives, declined by the Ministry of Defence and the Information Commission, has been appealed at the High Court. A hearing for the case has been scheduled.
The request for information, through the Right To Information Act, was lodged by Ahmed Azaan, a senior journalist working at Dhiyares, the sister-newspaper of The Maldives Journal.
High Court initially scheduled a hearing for 22nd March 2021. However, that hearing was cancelled on 20th March. The High Court informed that a hearing of the case will be held on 31st March 2021. The case was appealed at the high court in October 2020.
The case was accepted by the High Court on 8 December 2020. A copy of the answer granted by the State to Dhiyares’ RTI request was submitted by email on 26 January 2021.
The Information Commissioner’s Office had ruled that the Ministry of Defence did not have to disclose the number of Indian military personnel present in the Maldives; nor did they have to disclose any information of the agreement that allowed the use of Indian military aircraft in the country. Dhiyares is currently working to appeal the latter case at the High Court.