Govt moves Parliament to push through 16th Amendment

The law minister has presented a bill in Parliament for a constitutional amendment to restore the legislative authority to impeach Supreme Court judges.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs will do the screening after Anisul Huq tabled the ‘Constitution (16th Amendment) Bill-2014 on Sunday.

The committee has a week to submit a report on the planned changes to the Constitution.

The bill was submitted at the Parliament Secretariat on Sept 2.

That day, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury had hinted that the bill would be passed in the current session.

It proposes Parliament's control over the investigation process and proofs against a judge’s offences or incapability by law.

The Cabinet gave the green light to the amendment on Aug 18.

The BNP, which boycotted the last national elections and is out of Parliament, has been opposing the government move.

Suranjit Sengupta, who leads the parliamentary watchdog, recently said he would take everyone's opinion after the bill comes to his panel for vetting.

"The BNP can give its opinion too. We will ask Supreme Court and Bar Council and take their opinions. Every suggestion will be recorded and the parliamentary committee will have them," he had said.

But hours before the bill was tabled Sunday, BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir criticised the move to amend the Constitution in an 'illegal' Parliament.

"It will be a particular party's decision if the power to impeach judges is given to such a Parliament. There won't be any justice in the country if this happens," he said.

The government, for its part, says the move has been made to uphold the basic structure of the Constitution regarding accountability.

The law minister while tabling the bill said, "We hope once the bill becomes an Act it will increase the people's trust in independent judiciary as well as uphold the Constitution's basic structure regarding elected representatives' accountability to the people."

The first Constitution of Bangladesh in 1972 gave Parliament the jurisdiction to settle the tenure of top judges and decide about their removal.

The president was then vested with the power through the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution in 1975.

After military ruler Ziaur Rahman usurped state power, the Fourth Amendment was annulled and a Supreme Judicial Council was formed following an order to enforce the impeachment rule, which is still in effect.

Explaining the purpose of the planned amendment, the law minister said it aimed at reviving a provision empowering Parliament to impeach judges if they lost confidence of the Parliament –
which is equally the case for the president, prime minister and the speaker.

He claimed the current system to remove judges was conflicting with the core ideas of the Constitution.

Minister Huq said parliaments in many democracies had a policy to hold the judges, like any other government institutions, to account.

Since the Cabinet last month cleared the bill, the government has been hinting that it would be passed in the ongoing third session of the 10th Parliament.

The issue of reviving this authority came into focus after the Awami League took office in the last term.

In 2012, some MPs called for the removal of a High Court judge after a series of events around the remark of the then speaker and current President Md Abdul Hamid.

The matter was also discussed in 2011 when the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was underway, although the article was not restored.