Justice Shamsuddin’s comments amount to contempt of court: Mirza Fakhrul

The BNP says remarks by former top court judge AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury over the chief justice and the 16th amendment verdict are tantamount to contempt of court.

“Justice Shamsuddin often makes such comments,” senior leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told the media on Sunday. “His speech, his choice of words, makes it clear to me he was unfit to be a judge.”

According to him, the remarks are ‘uncultured and offensive’ and ‘beyond the realms of decency'.

“Certainly it's contempt of court. I believe the comments should be taken into consideration by the court and judged accordingly,” said the BNP secretary general.

On Saturday, Justice Choudhury called into question whether Chief Justice Sinha had written the entirety of the verdict on the 16th Amendment.

"He had taken only 25 days to write 400 pages, it's impossible. The verdict was not written by him at all," said Justice Choudhury, who worked at the Appellate Division with Justice Sinha before his retirement in 2016.

“If you go through the verdict, you will find words that have been never used in verdicts written by him. It's clear that someone else -- probably some Pakistani ISI (agents) -- wrote it," he alleged.

Justice Choudhury, who had been involved in bickering with Justice Sinha during his retirement last year, also called for the chief justice to step down.

The 16th constitutional amendment, passed in 2014, restores parliament's power to sack top court judges for misconduct and incapability.

Last year, the High Court declared the amendment ‘illegal’ and the decision was upheld on Jul 3 by the Appellate Division. The 799-page full verdict was finally released by the Supreme Court on Aug 1.