The Supreme Court Bar Association president today strongly protested Law Minister Anisul Huq’s comment on a dissenting verdict by a Supreme Court judge in a war crimes case.
The law minister’s remark about giving and writing judgment by a SC judge is similar to “serious contempt of court”, SCBA President Khandker Mahbub Hossain said while addressing a press conference at its auditorium.
Anisul on Monday told a programme in Dhaka that giving dissenting verdict and not writing it by a judge might be part of a conspiracy, according to a report published in the Bangla daily Prothom Alo today.
“A judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has given a split judgment, but he has not written the verdict till now. A judgment cannot be executed until its full text is released, according to the law. He has been requested to write the judgment. Let us see. You have given a dissenting verdict. What is the problem in writing the judgment? It might be a part of conspiracy,” the report quoted the law minister.
The SC on November 3 last year sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to death for committing crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971. But, his execution was not carried out as the full judgment was not released.
The SCBA president told the media that it is unacceptable that the law minister can make such a comment, as he was an efficient lawyer and had practiced in the SC for a long period.
Khandker Mahbub, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, said a measure should be taken if the law minister does not acknowledge publicly that his statement was not right.
He said the SC judges usually need much time to write verdicts, as they have to examine legal points and arguments.
The SC released the full verdict in the caretaker government case 16 months of its pronouncement, and it released the full judgement on Fatwa related case 44 months of its pronouncement.
Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah was executed eleven months after the verdict was delivered in a war crimes case, he added.
Source: The Daily Star
