India believes it has no obligation to facilitate the delivery of the summons to former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, who is holed up in the Indian High Commission in Male, but hopes he will himself make the first move to leave the Mission premises.
The Maldivian foreign ministry delivered to the Indian Mission a High Court order summoning Nasheed to the next hearing slated for Thursday.
Official sources said India was under no obligation to take note of the order, since summonses cannot be delivered to High Commissions as per international treaties.
Instead, they hope Nasheed will himself decide to leave the Mission where he has been staying since February 13, when rumours of his imminent arrest spread. Even after the government assured that the warrant had expired, Nasheed preferred to stay put.
Officials hope Nasheed will realise that the restricted stay at the Mission was affecting his campaign, as he was unable to react to the allegations made by his political opponents. Now the former president, sources say, has to fight the battle on his own in the domestic political scene. The court case in an atoll relates to Nasheed’s detention of the chief judge of the criminal court during his presidency. His MDP party has claimed that it was a politically-motivated case aimed to stop him from standing in the September presidential polls.
India has restricted access to Nasheed to his close family members and friends, and had said its premises could not be used for political meetings.
MDP chairperson Moosa Manik wrote to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, thanking India for its assistance.