Court summons secretaries over delay in finalising judges service rules

The Supreme Court has summoned two secretaries of the law ministry after the repeated failure of the government to finalise the service rules of lower court judges in line with the Masdar Hossain case.

The order was passed by an appellate bench of eight justices led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, after the hearing of a petition to extend the deadline.

“We are not issuing a written order, but are telling you verbally: the two secretaries must be brought before the court at 9 am on Monday,” the chief justice told the attorney general.

Previously, on Dec 1, the government secured a week-long extension of the deadline for issuing a gazette notification because the law minister and attorney general were abroad.

They were ordered to submit the gazette by Dec 7.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court delivered a historic verdict separating the judiciary from the executive in a case filed by one Masdar Hossain on Dec 2, 1999.

The apex court dissolved the judicial cadre of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) on the ground that it was incompatible with the Constitution and declared the judicial services independent.

It also issued a set of directives to the government for the process of separating the judiciary from the executive. Following the verdict, the judiciary was separated from the executive branch on Nov 1, 2007.

As part of the separation, the government submitted a draft of the rules relating to the service of judges of subordinate courts.

The Appellate Division, however, declared it contradictory to the Masdar Hossain case verdict on Aug 28 this year because the draft was similar to the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985.

The Supreme Court then amended the draft and sent it back to the law ministry, asking it to finalise it and submit it as a report on Nov 6.

After a failure to submit the report, the Appellate Division ordered the State to write down the steps taken to finalise the rules and submit them and set Nov 14 for issuing the order.

The attorney general submitted the petition seeking time, but the apex court found it 'unclear' and ordered that the rules be finalised and gazetted by Nov 24, but the government failed to do so.