Four newly appointed Appellate Division judges took oath on Sunday amid protest by the Supreme Court Bar Association which opposed the elevation of a controversial judge.
The SCBA dominated by lawyers tilted to the opposition parties also protested against elevation of three of the judges who were appointed to the Appellate Division superseding several senior judges.
The SCBA demanded resignation of Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain for administering the oath to what it called a controversial judge.
On the newly appointed Appellate Division judges only Justice Mohammad Anwarul Haque did not supersede anyone.
But, Justice Siddiqur Rahman Miah, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury were elevated superseding several se4nior colleagues.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice constituted a six-judge Appellate Division bench, including new appointees Siddiqur Rahman and Justice Shamsuddin.
The six-judge bench has been assigned to hear from today the appeal petitions of Abdul Quader Molla and the government against the life term handed to the Jamaat leader by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 for his1971 crimes against humanity.
The Chief Justice would chair the bench and its three other judges are: Justice SK Sinha, Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain.
Quader filed the appeal petition seeking acquittal from the life term awarded by the ICT 2 on February 5.
The government in its appeal petition sought death sentence for Quader.
Conspicuous by their absence at the oath taking ceremony were 31 out of 90 High Court judges.
Their vacant seats were filled up by the other judges who came ahead at the request of the Chief Justice.
The SCBA said that many of the superseded judges stayed away from the ceremony of oath for the new appointees.
SCBA was particularly vocal against the appointment of Justice Shamsuddin and called him ‘controversial’ for various reasons.
It also opposed the appointments of Justice Siddiqur Rahman and Justice Hasan Foez and Justice Shamsuddin, by superseding several senior judges.
Justice Siddiqur Rahman superseded four senior judges, Justice Hasan Foez superseded 40 and Justice Shamsuddin superseded 41 senior judges, said the SCBA.
On Thursday, the president elevated the four judges to the Appellate Division.
The SCBA had requested the Chief Justice not to administer oaths to the ‘controversial judges’ keeping the interests of the judiciary and the nation in mind.
On Sunday morning, over 100 lawyers, led by SCBA president AJ Mohammad Ali and Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum president Rafiqul Islam Miah, staged a sit-in on the overpass linking the Supreme Court Building and the SCBA building.
The court’s security guards and the police locked the collapsible gate to prevent the protesters from going to the venue of oath ceremony.
The protesters tried to proceed to the Supreme Court Building chanting slogans against Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury.
All this happened just before the CJ was set to administer oaths to the newly appointed Appellate Division judges at 10.30 AM in the Judges’ Conference Room.
The police ignored repeated requests from Rafiqul Islam to unlock the gate to allow four of them, the outgoing and the incumbent SCBA presidents, Bangladesh Bar Council vice chairman Khondker Mahbub Hossain and he himself to meet the Chief Justice.
Later, his request to bring the registrar to the spot was also ignored.
The protesters requested the presence of the registrar to convey their requests to the CJ to allow the four senior lawyers to meet him.
The four senior lawyers wanted to meet the chief justice with the request not to administer oath to Justice Shamsuddin.
The police and the security guards ignored the requests and guarded the locked entrance leading to venue of the oath ceremony.
The chief justice denigrated history of the Supreme Court by preventing Supreme Court lawyers from entering into the court building, Rafiqul Islam said.
As a security guard unlocked the entrance after the ceremony was over at about 11. 30 AM, the protesters locked it again.
The protests continued until 1 PM when the traditional felicitations of the four newly appointed judges were over in the court room of the chief justice.
Felicitation notes were read out by attorney general Mahbubey Alam and the outgoing SCBA vice president KM Saifuddin, a leader of the pro ruling party forum of lawyers.
The litigants had to make a detour to enter the court building as the main entrance was locked throughout the day to keep the protesting lawyers away.
Large contingent of plainclothes and uniformed police were deployed in and around the court building.
The protesting lawyers announced that they would go to the Supreme Court today wearing black badges.
They opposed the elevation of Justice Shamsuddin and called him ‘controversial for many reasons.’
On June 5, 2012 a High Court bench led by Justice Shamsuddin kicked up a big controversy by terming as ‘seditious’ the remarks of speaker Abdul Hamid’s in Parliament on May 29, 2012 following a High Court decision to relocate the Roads and Highways Department elsewhere.
Abdul Hamid, now the acting president, in his ruling on June 18, 2012 accused Justice Shamsuddin of flouting the Constitution for making ‘discourteous’ remarks about the speaker and Parliament.
In his ruling, the speaker had also requested the chief justice to take suitable action against Justice Shamsuddin for violating the Constitution. (Source)
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