No re-hearings on 168 resolved cases, full verdicts in a month: Chief Justice

The Supreme Court will not hold any fresh hearings on the 168 cases resolved with summary judgments.

Rather it will publish the full verdicts within a month, Chief Justice Surendra Kumkar Sinha has said.

“We are scrutinising the matter; fresh hearings will not happen,” he said on Thursday.

The matter came up before the appeals bench headed by the chief justice.

“I give you my word. All the verdicts will be published within a month. It’s my responsibility,” said Sinha.

The Supreme Court had scheduled fresh hearing for the cases just a few months after the chief justice said it was unconstitutional for judges to write verdicts once they retire.

On Apr 28, the matter was included in the apex court’s cause list.

The chief justice’s personal secretary Anisur Rahman told bdnews24.com at that time that 168 cases that had been disposed of have been lined up of fresh hearings.

A Supreme Court official, seeking anonymity, said that 161 of the cases were heard in the bench which included Retired Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury . Former chief justice Md Muzammel Hossain was part of the bench that dealt with the remaining seven.

Justice Hossain retired in January last year as the 20th chief justice of Bangladesh while Justice Choudhury in October.

The cases would have been put up for fresh hearing , had judgments issued in those cases from 2013 until the retirement of these two judges not been accepted, court officials said.

Former chief justice Hossain, however, said that there’s no option to re-hear cases that have already been disposed of.

“Our Supreme Court feels the Constitution, and the law do not permit that," he told bdnews24.com.

Justice Choudhury described the move as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘ridiculous’.

At a talk show in a television channel, he said it would only ‘waste the court’s valuable time’.

After the proceedings began on Thursday with Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Barrister Rokonuddin Mahmud in the courtroom, the chief justice gave his decision on the issue.

“Our colleagues have cooperated with utmost cordiality. In one or two cases, the paper books may be required.

“There are some cases, which are four to five years old. There are some anomalies as well. Re-hearings may be needed in two to four cases,” said Chief Justice Sinha.

He, however, assured that the full verdicts will be published within a month.

On Jan 17 this year, the incumbent Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said some judges took far too long to write their verdicts, and some kept writing them long after their retirement. He described this practice to be against the law.

The observation triggered a major debate among legal experts as well as in the political arena.

Amid the huge debate over Chief Justice Sinha’s remark, Justice Choudhury submitted the verdicts and orders he had written after going into retirement.

Last month, the Appellate Division, in its full verdict on a case, observed that a judge must avoid delays in writing full verdict, which should not exceed six months even in exceptional cases.

The 168 resolved cases were then included in the Supreme Court’s cause list for ‘re-hearings’, but on Thursday it was forwarded to the chief justice-led appeals bench for ‘orders’.