The High Court has rejected a request by State Electric Company (Stelco) to dismiss an appeal by Malé residents who say noise and smoke from its power station engines are harming their health and the environment.
In a procedural decision issued on Tuesday, 20 October, a three-judge bench ordered the appeal, case 2024/HC-A/27, to proceed.
The case was brought by five people living near the power station, who argue that the noise and fumes deny them their legal right to a clean and healthy environment. The Civil Court ruled against them in case 3046/Cv-C/2021, and they appealed.
Stelco asked the High Court to dismiss the appeal, arguing that the appeal form did not state what the appellants were asking the court to do, as the Civil Procedure Act requires. It also asked the court to order the residents to pay its court costs and lawyer's fees.
The court found that the relief sought had been set out in the original form and in a later amended form. But when two pages were resubmitted to correct a small typing error, the page containing it went missing. The court said this was partly due to an administrative oversight on its own part in accepting the form, and that throwing out the case over such a defect would result in injustice.
The bench of Judges Abdul Maaniu Hussain, Hassan Shafeeu and Fathimath Farheeza ruled that the appeal will continue on the relief stated in the residents' original form.