Male’, Maldives – High Court of the Maldives has ruled that Education Ministry does not have to pay any amount of fine to Mandhu College.
This cased was lodged by Mandhu College stating that their furniture was taken under the Ministry of Education and that the ministry had neglected to take proper care of those. Mandhu College claimed for compensation for the furniture and for a fine for the negligence and loss of their assets. Mandhu college filed the case saying that the furniture had been lost because of the negligence of the ministry.
The court ruled that Mandhu College could not prove it to the court that they had not received these assets which had been handed over to the ministry by the college in 2010. The assets were handed over to the ministry by the college when the Male’ English School (MES) building in which the college was being operated under an agreement with the ministry was needed back by the ministry to temporarily move students from Al Madhrasathul Arabiyyathul Islamiyya (Arabiyya School) as the school building had to be reconstructed due to poor infrastructural condition.
After the Ministry had to take the MES building to move the studies of Arabiyya School, the ministry had to take the furniture being used for the classrooms of Mandhu College as there was no safe place to store those. Mandhu College sued the ministry claiming that these furniture was lost and to pay them MVR 400,000 for the furniture and another MVR 3 million as fine for negligence which resulted in the loss of the furniture.
The lower court had previously ruled that Education Ministry only needs to pay for the cost of the furniture and that the fine cannot be taken from the ministry. Mandhu College appealed the case in High Court requesting to take the fine from the ministry where High Court also upheld the lower courts decision.
