SC asks government to gazette services rules for judges by Dec 10

The Appellate Division has granted the State until Dec 10 to publish the gazette notification clarifying the service rules for lower court judges.

So far it has extended the deadline twice since the resignation of former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Nov 10.

A five-member bench headed by acting Chief Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah granted Attorney General Mahbubey Alam’s petition seeking time in the matter on Sunday.

The draft of the service rules, reviewed by the top court, had been sent to President Md Abdul Hamid and the gazette notification would be published as soon it received his approval, Law Minister Anisul Huq had said earlier.

After months of delays, Minister Huq submitted the final draft of the service rules to the Appellate Division for review on Jul 27.

On Jul 30, former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha rejected it, saying none of the recommendations made by the court had been included.

Justice Sinha and other judges of the six-member Appellate Division bench then offered to sit with the state representatives, including the law minister and the attorney general, to finalise the draft.

Huq told the media that he would sit with the top court judges on Aug 3, but later deferred it citing health issues.

Meanwhile, Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha came under fire for the decision dismissing the 16th amendment. On Oct 3, he took a leave from the court and resigned on Nov 10 while in Australia.

Six days later, Minister Huq told journalists that the disagreements over the code of conduct for lower court judges had been resolved in a meeting with Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah.

The government submitted a draft of the rules for lower court judges last year to separate the judiciary from the executive.

The separation followed a historic appellate verdict over a case filed by Judge Masdar Hossain in 1999.

It declared the judicial services independent, dissolving the judicial cadre of Bangladesh Civil Service on the grounds that it was incompatible with the constitution.

In 2007, two separate magistracies for judicial and executive functions were inaugurated.

Last year in May, the law ministry submitted a draft of service rules for lower court judges in the top court.

But the rules were declared incompatible with the Masdar Hossain case verdict because it appeared 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 and submit it as a report.