The Supreme Court has ruled that Hassan Shiyam (VB Hassan) cannot contest the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Court ruled that Hassan, who is running for Central Henveiru constituency has a debt he needs to clear, rendering him ineligible for the election.

Incumbent Central Henveiru MP Ali Azim’s brother Ilyas Ahmed submitted the case to the Supreme Court to revoke Shiyam’s candidacy in light of a proven debt.

In this case, Ilyas said that Hassan has a proven debt by the Civil Court and that he is not paying the debt in accordance with the judgment of the court, and therefore he does not meet the requirements of the Constitution, the Parliamentary Election Act and the Parliamentary Election Rules to contest the election.

Hassan is among the 11 individuals who provided the guarantee for two loans taken by Crystal Lagoon Resort from State Bank of India (SBI). The resort is yet to settle the USD 10 million loan taken in 2006 and MVR 64 million loan taken in 2008, even though the repayment date had expired.

SBI had filed an application again in the Civil Court for non-payment of the debt even after the judgment, seeking an order that the mortgage was sold on behalf of Hassan and there was no proven debt to be enforced till the court determined the amount due by the guarantors.

However, the Civil Court did not issue such an order. The case was appealed to the High Court, which upheld the civil court's decision.

Supreme Court, on Thursday, delivered the judgment in the case where the three justices who heard the case unanimously decided to revoke Hassan’s candidacy citing he did not meet the requirements to contest in the parliamentary election.

Therefore, the Supreme Court judges unanimously ruled that the Election Commission's decision to allow Hassan to contest the 2024 parliamentary elections was invalid.