The High Court Registrar has refused to register an appeal submitted by former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom challenging a pre-trial ruling issued by the Criminal Court in an ongoing criminal case.
The appeal, filed last Wednesday, sought to overturn the lower court’s decision concerning a preliminary application submitted by Yameen’s defence team. His lawyers argued that the Criminal Court had failed to adequately explain its assessment of evidence they had requested to be excluded from the proceedings.
The defence maintained that the lack of sufficient reasoning had resulted in what it described as a miscarriage of justice and warranted intervention by the High Court.
However, the Registrar declined to accept the appeal, citing established Supreme Court precedents governing challenges to preliminary decisions concerning the admissibility of evidence.
According to the Registrar’s decision, rulings on whether evidence should be admitted during the preliminary stages of a criminal case are not necessarily final. Such matters can be reconsidered during the trial, when the court has the opportunity to examine the evidence more comprehensively before reaching a final determination.
The Registrar observed that allowing separate appeals against decisions that remain open to review during trial proceedings could create unnecessary delays and interfere with the progress of cases before the Criminal Court.
The decision also referred to provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act, which restrict appeals against pre-trial rulings to matters that cannot subsequently be challenged or resolved during the trial itself.
In Yameen’s case, the Registrar noted that the Criminal Court had not ordered the exclusion of any evidence and had provided adequate justification for its decision.
The ruling further explained that prematurely excluding evidence that may ultimately be admissible could have more serious consequences than allowing disputed material to remain part of the proceedings at an early stage.
This is because parties retain the right to challenge both the admissibility and evidentiary value of such material as the trial progresses, allowing the court to make its final assessment after considering the relevant arguments.
Based on these considerations and the applicable Supreme Court precedents, the Registrar determined that the appeal did not meet the requirements for registration and consideration by the High Court.
The decision leaves the Criminal Court’s pre-trial ruling in place, while the underlying criminal proceedings continue through the lower court.
