President Mohamed Nasheed today ratified the First Amendment Bill to the Public Finance Act. The ratification comes following the Supreme Court’s ruling last week for early ratification of the bill.
The government has been maintaining that certain provisions in the bill contained, inter alia, legal issues and would negatively affect government’s social protection system. However, in a press conference on Saturday, the President stated that the government would “fully comply” with Supreme Court’s ruling and proceed to ratify the bill at the earliest.
Following President’s ratification of the bill, the Attorney General has now filed a case in the Supreme Court to rule that articles 5, 7, 10(a), 34 of the Act as contradicting the Constitution. The Attorney General is also seeking a Supreme Court’s order for a temporary suspension of such provisions until new legislation is passed to resolve issues arising from enacting the Act.
