Male’, Maldives – President of the Bar Council of Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Hameed said on Thursday, that the decision to not allow Islamic Shari’ah students to practice law was based on the the fact that the documents provided by the students did not deem the degree to be one of law.
This comes as three students who graduated from an Islamic Shari’ah course in Medina were not approved to practice law, among the 283 students who completed the Special Licensing Training Programme (SLTP) exam organized by the Bar Council as a means of regulating the legal profession in the country.
Speaking to local media out let, ‘Mihaaru’, Maumoon Hameed clarified that the students were not rejected because the study program was Islamic Shari’ah, but simply because the documents provided did not state whether the program was a law degree.
As per law, the most basic requirement of becoming a lawyer is to have completed a first degree in law. “Hence, since it could not be determined whether the course was a law degree and that it is required by law, we have informed them as such.” Maumoon said.
The issue occurred for three students who studied under scholarships provided by the Saudi government. However, Maumoon stated that a remedy has provided for the students, which is to provide additional documents to prove that the program is indeed in the field of law, which would allow them to take their oath along with the 280 other students this coming Saturday.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced the establishment of the ‘Maldives Bar Council’ as required under section 3.a of Law no: 5/2019, the Legal Professions Act on 17th July, 2019.
