Government made Appellate Division senior most judge Md Abdul Wahhab Miah as acting Chief Justice approving 30-days leave of the Chief Justice SK Sinha for his ‘illness’.
The Law Ministry issued a gazette notification regarding this on Monday night with effect from October 3 to November 1.
The court official told New Age that the government notification was reached to the resident of Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah Monday night.
A five-member bench chaired by Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah started the court proceedings on Tuesday morning.
Supreme Court judges joined a traditional get together with its lawyers at 10:30am on the court premises.
Earlier, the chief justice, SK Sinha, on Monday sought leave for a month on the ground of his ‘illness’ with effect from today, when the Supreme Court will resume after a 37-day long vacation.
Attorney general Mahbubey Alam at a briefing on Monday at his office said that issuance of a government order was under process assigning the duty and functions of the chief justice to senior most Appellate Division judge Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah under Article 97 of the constitution.
The Article 97 reads, ‘If the office of the chief justice becomes vacant, or if the president is satisfied that the chief justice is, on account of absence, illness, or any other cause, unable to perform the functions of his office, those functions shall, until some other person has entered upon that office, or until the chief justice has resumed his duties, as the case may be, be performed by the next most senior judge of the Appellate Division.’
Mahbubey Alam said that since the chief justice went on a one-month leave, he would not sit in the court today, he said.
Justice Sinha’s name was not on the cause list, the list of courts and cases to be heard, for today posted on the website.
Supreme Court Bar Association president Zainul Abedin and secretary AM Mahbubuddin Khokan told reporters that taking such a long leave by a chief justice is unprecedented in the history of the country’s judiciary.
‘We cannot understand why the chief justice left office seeking leave after inviting lawyers for the traditional get together of the judges and lawyers scheduled for Tuesday after a long vacation for 37 days ,’ Zainul said.
Zainul said that bar association leaders failed to meet the chief justice at his residence as the security guards told them that the chief justice was willing to meet nobody right at the moment.
‘The security guards told us that the chief justice was not ill,’ he added.
According to court officials, the chief justice was at his office from 9:00am to 2:30pm on Monday.
The officials said that before leaving the office, the chief justice sent a computer-composed letter to Bangabhban through a court staff.
The Supreme Court Bar Association called an emergency meeting of its executive committee Monday morning ‘following the sudden decision of the chief justice.’
In August, lawyers toeing ruling Awami League’s political line held countrywide demonstrations demanding that observations Justice Sinha made in the judgement in the 16th amendment case be expunged.
The verdict, which was written by the justice SK Sinha, had scrapped the 16th amendment to the constitution empowering the parliament to remove Supreme Court for misbehaviour and incapacity.
The full verdict was released on August 1.
Bangabandhu Awami Ainjibi Parishad, a platform of pro-Awami League lawyers, demanded that the chief justice should immediately expunge the observations relating to the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman saying that the remarks had undermined Mujib’s leadership in the Liberation War.
The AL lawyers later demanded resignation of the chief justice unless he expunged the observation.
Earlier, prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, censured the chief justice and asked the party leaders to criticise the verdict.
On September 13, Jatiya Sangsad unanimously resolved that appropriate legal steps be taken for the cancellation the declaration of the 16th amendment to constitution as ‘ultra vires’ and unconstitutional, objectionable and irrelevant observations made by the chief justice about parliament and other important issues in the verdict in the 16th amendment case.
Lawyers toeing BNP’s political line, however, supported the apex court’s unanimous verdict and the observations and blasted the government and the ruling AL for making ‘contemptuous statements’ against the Appellate Division.
The chief justice and the government were at loggerheads for long over publishing Supreme Court-drafted disciplinary rules for lower court judges in official gazette.
SK Sinha assumed office on January 17, 2015 as the country’s 21st chief justice. His retirement is scheduled for January 31, 2018.
