Dhaka, 21 Jan – The High Court Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday deferred the hearing on a writ petition seeking the appointment of the Chief Justice from Supreme Court lawyers.A High Court bench of Justice Zinat Ara and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo on Sunday fixed Jan 28 for the hearing after the state sought time to take necessary preparations.
Advocate Eunus Ali Akond submitted the petition to the High Court on Jan 3, urging the court to issue a rule as to why the inaction of the authorities to fill the post of the Chief Justice should not be deemed unconstitutional. Earlier, four benches of the High Court had rejected the petition.
Advocate Eunus told the court that he had no objection to Attorney General Mahbubey Alam’s plea for seven days. He had served legal notices on the authorities seeking directives to fill the post, to which the respondents remained silent.
The post fell vacant more than two months back after former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha resigned on November 10. He left the country amid a huge outcry by government stalwarts on the annulment of the 16th Constitutional Amendment.
President Md Abdu Hamid appointed Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah, the senior most among his colleagues, as the acting Chief Justice. A Supreme Court lawyer of 10 years’ experience is eligible to become a judge as per the constitution but none of them has ever been appointed directly to the Appellate Division or Chief Justice since 1972, according to Eunus. “More than 80 percent of the additional judges of the High Court Division came from lawyers. None of them were appointed directly (to the Appellate Division.”
It shows discrimination against the lawyers and a violation of their basic rights as mentioned in the constitution, according to Eunus.“There is no constitutional directive that High Court judges will be preferred for appointment to the Appellate Division. However, all the posts at the Appellate Division are being filled by promoting High Court judges,” Eunus had told after serving the legal notice upon the government.
“That means the Chief Justice takes oath four times as one person holds four posts one after another, whereas the lawyers are not getting any opportunity to serve as Appellate Division judges despite the provision in the constitution.”
However, the constitution says: The Chief Justice shall be appointed by the President, and the other judges shall be appointed by the President in consultation with the Chief Justice. A person shall not be qualified for appointment as a judge unless he is a citizen of Bangladesh and has been an advocate of the Supreme Court or held judicial office or has such qualifications for no less than ten years.
