Chief justice expects Justice Shamsuddin to return case files, not talk to media

Chief Justice SK Sinha expects retired Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury to return the files of all unfinished judgments instead of speaking to the media.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 7 Feb 2016, 12:56 PM
Updated : 7 Feb 2016, 02:02 PM

The Supreme Court released a statement to the media on the top judge’s sentiment on Sunday. It came hours after Justice Choudhury gave his take to journalists on the controversy surrounding the writing of verdicts by judges after retirement.

The chief justice expects Justice Choudhury to immediately send the files of cases whose judgments are yet to be written to the office of the registrar general’s office, rather than continue making comments in the media about verdicts and orders of cases. The chief justice has asked for this measure ‘so that people seeking justice do not suffer’, the statement read.

The media release was issued by acting registrar general Abu Syed Diljar Hussain after the “press conference” of the retired judge at the Supreme Court premises during judicial proceedings “came to the notice” of Justice Sinha.

It said such "press conference" at the Supreme Court premises was 'unprecedented'.  

"The honourable Chief Justice hopes the honourable judges will refrain from doing such things to protect the court's sanctity and dignity now and in the future," it read.

Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury

Chief Justice Sinha had said verdicts written by judges after retirement were ‘against the Constitution’ which led to widespread discussions.

Judges are no longer under oath after they retire, he had explained. Speaking at another event, he had said he would no longer allow this ‘mistake’ to continue.

BNP leaders then came out in support of his view and exploited it to claim that the verdict which led to the scrapping of the caretaker government system was also ‘illegal’.    

But Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said Chief Justice Sinha made the remarks to press for justice, not because he believed that writing verdicts after they were announced was illegal.

Law Minister Anisul Huq and his predecessor Shafique Ahmed also said that they did not see anything wrong with the old practice.

Justice Choudhury, who retired four months ago, later asked the chief justice to accept handwritten verdicts.

He still had 15 verdicts and 70 orders to write when he went into retirement on Oct 1.

He said he no longer had staff to help him so the verdicts were handwritten. They have meanwhile been sent to the chief justice.