Judge service rules: Government gets further extension on gazette publication

The Supreme Court has once again extended the deadline to Feb 5 for the government to issue a gazette notification clarifying the service rules of lower court judges.

A bench of seven justices led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed the date after Chief Law Officer Mahbubey Alam requested a month's extension on Sunday.

On Dec 8 the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division had summoned two secretaries of the law ministry over the repeated failure of the government to issue a gazette notification after amending separate conduct rules and disciplinary rules for judicial officers in keeping with the verdict  of the Masdar Hossain case. 

On Dec 11, a notice posted on the law ministry’s website said the president had given the ministry permission not to issue the gazette, claiming it was unnecessary.

When Secretary Sheikh Md Zahrul Hoque of the Law and Justice Division and Secretary Md Shahidul Haque of the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division appeared before the court the next day, they were told by the chief justice that “the president was misinformed” about the gazette. The Appeals Division gave Attorney General Mahbubey Alam until Jan 15 to publish the gazette.

The attorney general told the court on Sunday that more time was necessary to carry out the order and filed a petition for a month's extension to the court.

Masdar Hossain case

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Dec 2, 1999 delivered a historic verdict separating the judiciary from the executive in a case filed by a judge, Masdar Hossain.

It dissolved the judicial cadre of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) on the grounds that it was incompatible with the Constitution and declared the judicial services independent.

The apex court also issued a set of directives to the government for bringing about a separation of the judiciary from the executive.

Following the verdict, the judiciary was separated from the executive branch on Nov 1, 2007.

As part of the separation, the government submitted a draft of the rules relating to the services of judges of subordinate courts.

The Appellate Division, however, declared it contradictory to the Masdar Hossain case verdict on Aug 28 this year because the draft appeared similar to the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985.

The Supreme Court then amended the draft and sent it back to the law ministry, asking it to finalise and submit it as a report onNov 6.

With Attorney General Mahbubey Alam failing to submit any progress report on that day, the Appellate Division ordered the State to write down the steps taken to finalise the rules and submit them, fixing Nov 7 to issue the order.

The Supreme Court then extended the time for the government to issue the gazette several times until Dec 8.