Comment: Mutiny in the Supreme Court

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Chief Justice declared an injunction order issued by the “Supreme Court majority” of four judges on Thursday to be unlawful, issued without due process by the secret collusion of four members of the seven member bench, without the knowledge of himself and two other justices.

The injunction order is to stop the appointment of a Civil Service Commission (CSC) member to replace the disgraced CSC Chair Mohamed Fahmy Hassan, who was removed from office and CSC membership by the Majlis earlier this year for sexual assault of a staff member. He continued to sit in the office despite the removal, while politicians haggled and MPs pointed the finger at each other and outside to explain his impunity and the absence of rule of law.

No one appeared to understand that it is the Majlis that has the power to appoint and remove CSC members, with the CSC Act having been amended in 2010 for Majlis to take full powers of appointment, oversight and removal of CSC members, or that squatting in public office after removal is a crime.