Attorney General Alam is 'utterly frustrated' with 16th Amendment appeals verdict

The Supreme Court appeals verdict declaring illegal the 16th constitutional amendment that empowered parliament to impeach judges has left the attorney general frustrated.

Speaking to reporters at his office after the verdict on Monday, Mahbubey Alam said the judgment put an end to the State's hope of restoring the related section of the Constitution to its 1972 original form.

"I feel utterly sorry, and frustrated," he said.

Asked whether the State will seek a review, he said, "We will let you know after discussing it with the law ministry and the government."

The power to remove judges was vested in Parliament in the 1972 Constitution enacted after independence. This power was transferred to the president through the Fourth Amendment during Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's tenure.

During Ziaur Rahman’s rule, the power was handed to the Supreme Judicial Council through the Fifth Amendment, which validated all the martial law orders issued by the post-1975 rulers including Zia.

The Fifth Amendment was later repealed by the Supreme Court while the power to remove judges returned to Parliament through the 16th amendment in 2014.

Some lawyers had filed a writ petition challenging the amendment and the High Court declared it illegal in May last year.

On Monday, a seven-strong bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha scrapped the State's appeal against the High Court verdict.

Attorney General Alam said, "Our hope was to return to the basic sections of the 1972 Constitution, which Bangabandhu said was written with blood after the 1971 Liberation War.

"We did return through the verdicts on the fifth, seventh, eighth and 13th amendment cases...but...now I am very much frustrated," he said.

The attorney general said the Appellate Division expunged some observations by the High Court. "It has done right. What the High Court said about MPs was very much objectionable."

It will be known what parts of the verdict have been expunged when the full appeals verdict is published.

The High Court verdict had drawn sharp reaction from the political class; with MPs even walking out of the parliament in protest.

But, the BNP has supported the court’s ruling. The party has called the appeals verdict 'a victory of the people'.

The ruling Awami League said it will make its reaction known after the publication of the full appeals verdict.

Counsel Manzill Murshid, who represented the lawyers moving the petition against the 16th amendment, described the verdict as 'historic'.

Speaking to the media, he said: "The court unanimously scrapped the state's appeal. The law, allowing parliament to impeach top court judges, is now void. The 15th amendment to the Constitution, which protected the Supreme Judicial Council, has been upheld."

Attorney General Alam disagreed. He said he does not think the verdict implies that the Supreme Judicial Council will now be responsible for removing top court judges.

"In my opinion, the constitutional provisions annulled by the parliament will not be reinstated automatically. I think there is a (constitutional) vacuum. The court cannot replace the legislative assembly."

Alam’s persistence on having the full bench hold the appeal hearing had created a rift in the courtroom, which later led to heated arguments between Alam and the chief justice.

Meanwhile, rifts between the judiciary and government over judicial officials' training abroad and publication of a gazette on judges' service rules came back into focus.

The attorney general declined comment on the matters.

"What I want to say is our expectation of returning to the main Constitution ....this is where my sorrows, frustrations lie," he said.

"...Moreover, Supreme Judicial Council was only in Pakistan and then military ruler Ziaur Rahman brought it to our country wrongly. So what we are saying is that we want to erase everything of martial law from the Constitution."

"You'll have to understand the difference between the previous verdicts declaring constitutional amendments illegal and the latest one. The 16th Amendment was brought to restore the Constitution while the previous ones changed it."