Bangladesh News

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday granted the government three weeks for the last time to complete the separation process of the judiciary.

Granting the time, Chief Justice Mohammad Ruhul Amin said, “….this is (time extension) for the last time.”

A seven-member full bench of the SC headed by the chief justice also directed the government to inform it about the completion of the process by May 6 and fixed May 7 for the next hearing of the case.

Attorney General (AG) Fida M Kamal explained to the court the reason the government was seeking more time. He said a file related to the separation of judiciary is awaiting approval by the chief adviser (CA) and after the CA’s approval, the file would be sent to the president for his approval.

On Sunday, the AG submitted a prayer requesting four weeks’ time extension while it was mentioned in a letter of finance division that the government needed eight weeks’ time to complete the process. When the court yesterday asked the AG to explain why the government needed eight weeks for the task, the AG prayed only for four weeks’ time. The court then granted three more weeks as final time.

The Supreme Court on March 18 granted four weeks’ time for the separation of the judiciary from the executive following a prayer by the government seeking time to correct a number of flaws in the four related rules and the amended Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) Ordinance 2007.

The court had also asked the government to submit all the information regarding the lower court, judges, number of cases and infrastructure by last Sunday.

Earlier on February 26, the SC ordered the government to correct the flaws in the rules and the amended CrPC. It also fixed next hearing date on March 18.

The rules are Judicial Service Commission Rules 2002, Bangladesh Judicial Service Pay Commission Rules 2002, Bangladesh Judicial Service (Service Constitution, Composition, Recruitment, Suspension, Dismissal and Removal) Rules 2002, and Bangladesh Judicial Service (Posting, Promotion, Leave, Control, Discipline and other Service Condition) Rules 2001.

Barrister Shamsul Hasan told The Daily Star that three out of the four rules except the Bangladesh Judicial Service Pay Commission Rules have been published through gazette notification after correction of flaws.

Now the government will have to submit the corrected rules to the court regarding pay commission by May 6, said Hasan.

Barristers Hasan and Moniruzzaman Asad were present yesterday during the hearing on behalf of Barrister Amir-Ul Islam, counsel of the judiciary separation case.