Janakantha editor, executive editor get a week to respond to court contempt rule

Daily Janakantha’s Editor Mohammad Atikullah Khan and journalist Swadesh Roy will have to respond to a contempt of court ruling against them by Sunday.

A four-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha set the deadline on Monday, trashing their plea seeking three months to prepare an answer.

The Supreme Court on July 29 issued the rule against Roy, also the executive editor of the Bengali language daily, for his article questioning the conduct of judges hearing war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s appeal.

Their lawyer, Salauddin Dolon, said they had asked for more time but the court set a shorter deadline. The bench also asked the two to be present while making the submission on Sunday. 

Assistant Attorney General M Shoeb Khan also stood for the journalists and was Advocate-on-Record. The court gave him 48 hours to say why his lawyer’s licence should not be revoked for standing against the state, though he is a state lawyer.  

The top court, headed by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the death senctence of Chittagong’s war-time terror Salauddin Quader Chowdhury on July 29.

Roy's article, published on Jul 16, claimed that Chowdhury's family was lobbying for upturning the death verdict.

The report claimed Chowdhury’s relatives had met the judges hearing the case and wondered whether it was ethical on the part of the judges to meet them.
 
The attorney general said: “The article intends to create a controversy about the judiciary. The court believes the derogatory comments have damaged its image.”