Chief Justice SK Sinha has left for Australia Friday night.
He stepped out of his car at the gate of his residence as waiting journalists wanted him to say something on his trip and said, he is ‘not sick, but embarrassed’ at the criticism by the ruling party.Justice Sinha, whose tenure is scheduled to end on Jan 31 next year, has also warned against government ‘interference’ in the Supreme Court, saying it ‘will not do any good’ to the country.
He left Dhaka on a Singapore Airlines’ flight. He will stay with his daughter Suchana Sinha in Australia, Supreme Court officials had said earlier. His wife, Sushama accompanied him to the airport.
His trip has given rise to swirling speculations and drawn huge media attention. No other chief justice of Bangladesh has faced such public discussion and criticism as Justice Sinha.
He says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina may have ‘felt hurt’ because ‘a quarter misinterpreted the verdict to her’.
Referring to a letter from the chief justice to the president, Law Minister Anisul Huq said on Thursday that Justice Sinha wanted to return on Nov 10 after visiting Canada, the US and the UK besides Australia.
The president earlier accepted Justice Sinha’s sick leave from Oct 3 to Nov 1. The leave was extended to Nov 10, according to an executive order issued on Thursday.
It states that Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah will stand in as chief justice between Nov 2 and Nov 10, or until Justice Sinha returns.
The chief justice came out of the car when the journalists asked him to say something. The chief justice said: “I am not sick. I am well. “I am not fleeing. I will return. I am a bit embarrassed.
“I am the guardian of the judiciary. I am leaving temporarily for the sake of the judiciary, so that its image does not get hurt. I will return.
I am not disappointed with anyone. I strongly believe that the government has been misled.”
Chief Justice Sinha faced criticism by the ruling party leaders since the publication of the full appeals verdict in early August upholding the High Court judgment that scrapped the 16th constitutional amendment.
The criticisms were on the observations on Bangladesh’s politics, past dictatorships, the election commission, corruption, governance and the judiciary in the verdict.
Introduced by the Awami League government in 2014, the amendment did restore Parliament’s powers to sack top court judges on grounds of incompetence and misconduct.
The opposition BNP had welcomed the verdict, which restored the Supreme Judicial Council provision in the Constitution, a system introduced during rule the party founder Ziaur to deal with Supreme Court judges.
It maintains that the government forced Justice Sinha to go on the leave and travel abroad – an allegation the government denies.
Law Minister Anisul Huq publicised Justice Sinha’s letter to the president seeking the leave on Oct 4, a day after it started.
Later, he wrote to the president again informing him that he planned to travel to Australia where their eldest daughter lives.
On Thursday, the law minister said the government only followed Justice Sinha’s wish in issuing the executive order on the leave, its extension and his going abroad.
Justice Sinha expressed his thoughts in a rare signed statement in Bangla before the departure.
The statement read: “I am fully well, but I am truly embarrassed at how a political quarter, lawyers, and especially some honourable ministers in the government, and the honourable prime minister have criticised me personally.”
He has also expressed concern over the law minister’s comment that Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah, who is acting as chief justice in his absence now, is going to bring some administrative changes to the Supreme Court.
Justice Sinha says such deeds will be construed as government ‘interference’ in the apex court’s workings, which will ‘do no good’ to Bangladesh. – Agencies
