Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury has written to President Md Abdul Hamid seeking the impeachment of Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha.
Published : 13 Sep 2015, 07:55 PM
In the letter, the Appellate Division judge has sought Justice Sinha’s removal on grounds of the latter’s alleged violation of the Constitution, breach of oath, and misconduct.
Justice Choudhury sent the letter to President Hamid on Sunday.
He sent copies of it to the prime minister, speaker, chief justice, law minister and the Supreme Court judges.
A copy of the letter, available with bdnews24.com, shows seal of on-duty police officers at the Bangabhaban entrance acknowledging the receipt of the letter while another copy has the law ministry’s seal.
When approached, the president’s Press Secretary Muhammad Joynal Abedin told bdnews24.com: “We did not receive any such letter until 6:25pm.”
A leaked telephone conversation between the chief justice and another purported Supreme Court judge made headlines in the recent times. Media reports claimed Justice Choudhury was the other person in the conversation.
An article carried by vernacular daily Janakantha before war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s appeals verdict reported the matter and was dragged to the court.
At the hearing, the defence counsel submitted parts of the transcript of the audio tape, which revealed a difference of opinion between the chief justice and the other judge in question.
Another case, involving Justice Choudhury’s correspondence with the chief justice over pending verdicts before the former’s retirement, also came to light.
In his letter to the president, he said he would retire on Sept 17 but his pension process was halted.
He dubbed the chief justice’s action “discriminatory and spiteful”.
The judge, in his letter to the president, said another letter from the registrar general on Sept 2 informed him about the initiation of his pension process.
But it requested him to send back documents of the cases, the verdicts of which he would not be able to complete writing before his retirement, to the relevant department, he claimed.
It was feared in the letter Justice Choudhury might go abroad without writing the verdicts, as he held a British passport.
He said he had written to the chief justice on Sept 8, after getting the letter.
The judge said he had informed the chief justice that none of the judges had been asked to return case documents before retirement.
The chief justice’s treatment was “discriminatory and vengeful”, he wrote, adding that such behaviour amounted to interfering with his judgment and a violation of the Constitution’s Article 94 (4).
He claimed he had been removed from judging cases since his Sept 8 letter.
In his letter on Sunday, Justice Choudhury said the chief justice’s ‘misconduct’ by ‘removing’ him from judicial processes was impeachable.
He claimed that Chief Justice Sinha was the one to deny him a farewell.
Justice Choudhury further alleged the chief justice’s decision about him was based on his displeasure at him, proving Justice Sinha was “incapable” of judging cases by rising above personal emotions.