Thursday
26th Dec 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Information Commissioner's Office
High Court Schedules Hearing For Dhiyares Information Request Appeal
Recent hearing held at the Information Commissioner's Office regarding Uthuruthilafalhu agreement.
The High Court has scheduled a hearing of Dhiyares' appeal of a decision that had been made by the Information Commissioner's Office in favour of the Ministry of Defence.
Dhiyares, the sister-newspaper of The Maldives Journal, had submitted a request under the Right To Information Act to the Ministry of Defence to disclose the number of Indian military personnel present in the Maldives and the amount of money the Maldivian government spends on them.
On the Ministry's refusal to disclose the information, Dhiyares had appealed to the Information Commissioner's Office which had ruled that the Ministry was not obligated to disclose the requested information.
Dhiyares appealed the case at the High Court.
The High Court has scheduled a hearing of the case on 9 February, 10 am.
The High Court had first scheduled a hearing on 22 March 2021. The hearing had been cancelled without any explanation at the time, and re-scheduled for 31 March 2021 which had also been cancelled.
The High Court explained that the hearings had been cancelled because of the resignation of the Information Commissioner at the time and because the Information Commissioner's Office had no one in charge. The High Court said that the Information Commissioner's Office wished to continue with the case once a new Information Commissioner was appointed.
The Information Commissioner's Office had agreed with the Ministry of Defence's decision to not disclose the requested information to Dhiyares, and had also ruled that copies of the requested Dornier agreement also need not be disclosed.