Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed barred 12 High Court judges from all judicial activities after over a thousand students besieged the HC premises demanding removal of “pro-Awami League fascist judges” yesterday.
“The 12 judges will not be given benches for now, which means they will not be taking part in judicial activities when the court reopens on October 20,” Supreme Court Registrar General Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan told the protesting students around 4:00pm.
The agitating students then postponed their demonstrations until Sunday.
Aziz, however, did not disclose the names of the HC judges.
Asked about it later on, he said, “We will publish the cause list on Sunday without the names of the 12 judges, and you will understand who those judges are.”
Asked about several online media outlets publishing names of the 12 judges in question, Aziz said he does not know what they have published or how they got the information.
The development came over two months after then chief justice Obaidul Hassan and five other judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stepped down amid students’ demonstrations demanding their resignations following the fall of the Hasina-led government.
On August 10, when the SC judges were forced to resign, the students also demanded resignations of “pro-Awami League High Court judges”.
When a BNP delegation met Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus for a political dialogue on October 4, the party placed several demands including the removal of “partisan judges” from the HC.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin on October 8 appointed 23 additional judges to the High Court.
STUDENT PROTESTS
On Tuesday, Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam, two key coordinators of the students movement against discrimination, on their Facebook pages called for the protests demanding resignations of “Awami League’s fascist judges”.
Yesterday, more than a thousand students besieged the Supreme Court Annex Bhaban around 11:00am.
A section of lawyers then marched, calling for the resignation of “corrupt and biassed” judges. The legal wing of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee also held a rally there with the same demands.
Addressing the students, Hasnat said the AL-backed judges should be removed, pro-AL lawyers who chanted slogans supporting Hasina a few days ago be arrested in 24 hours, Bangladesh Chhatra League be banned.
He said the judges should be removed by 2:00pm.
Hasnat said, “Those who supported fascism cannot be trusted for delivery of justice in cases involving the Awami League’s murderous thugs and terrorists.”
Sarjis said, “Corrupt and biased judges have no place in the judiciary.”
Around 2:00pm, he said that they have become aware of a meeting going on regarding the removal of certain judges and that they would wait until 3:00pm for an official announcement.
Meanwhile, six HC judges met chief justice between 12:00pm and 2:00pm yesterday, reported Prothom Alo online. They are Justice SM Maniruzzaman, Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman, Justice Shahed Nuruddin, Justice Md Akhtaruzzaman, Justice Md Aminul Islam, and Justice SM Masud Hossain Dolon.
Seeking anonymity, two of the judges said they would go on leave until December 18 and two others said they would also go to leave but did not say any dates, the Bangla daily reported.
Around 4:00pm, SC Registrar General Aziz announced the CJ’s decision before the protesters.
Aziz said he held a long meeting with leaders of the movement and later he and his two colleagues talked to the chief justice about the issue.
He said there were procedures to follow for removing a justice, but now there are no laws in place in this regard.
The AL government amended the constitution empowering the parliament to remove SC judges for incapacity or misconduct.
But the Appellate Division of the SC in August 2017 upheld a High Court verdict that scrapped the 16th amendment to the constitution which had empowered the parliament to remove SC judges.
Aziz said the government has filed a review against the verdict and the SC was scheduled to hear the review petition on October 20.
He said the Bangabhaban has the authority to appoint SC and HC judges, and it usually starts the process of removal of HC judges.
The Supreme Court is not the sole party involved, the attorney general’s office and the law adviser are also involved in the process.
However, the chief justice has done his job and for now and the 12 HC judges would not be allocated benches, he said.
When someone mentioned that they demanded removal of all AL’s judges, the registrar general referred to the October 20 review hearing.
After his announcement, Hasnat said that they postposed their movement until October 20, and that they would go for tougher movement if their demands were not met.
Daily Star
