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Published : 19 Feb 2013, 01:05 PM
The Association members raised the demand from an emergency general meeting held at the South Hall of the Supreme Court.
SCBA General Secretary Advocate Momtaz Uddin Mehedi read out a proposal in the meeting demanding removal of Justice Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan.
They also demanded formation of a Supreme Judicial Council to remove the judge.
Article 96 of the Constitution provides for “empowering” the Supreme Judicial Council to remove a judge of the Supreme Court from the office upon allowing the delinquent judge an opportunity of being heard.
On behalf of Justice Bhuiyan, his assistant Siddiqur Rahman Hawlader on Monday distributed a report to the offices of the judges in Supreme Court envelopes, terming slain blogger Rajib an apostate.
In the report, the judge said: “His (Rajib) blog posts remind us of Murtad Salman Rushdie.”
Rajib, a leading activist of the Shahbagh movement, was killed by unidentified miscreants in the city's Pallabi area last Friday. His co-demonstrators have been blaming the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir for the killing.
Angered at such conduct of the judge, other judges of the High Court held several meetings on the issue and also saw the Chief Justice on Tuesday afternoon.
The Chief Justice summoned the judge and warned him.
SCBA General Secretary Mehedi said: “We propose formation of a Supreme Judicial Council to remove Justice Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan. We also requested the Chief Justice that the judge be kept out of conducting judicial activities until the council is formed and it makes its report public.”
Members of the SCBA endorsed Mehedi’s proposal by raising their hands.
SCBA Senior Vice-President KM Saifuddin Ahmed who was presiding over the function said: “We’ll meet the Chief Justice inform him about our demand”.
“We’re the representatives of the Supreme Court lawyers. On behalf of the countrymen, the lawyers have given their votes for and elected us. We cannot let anyone unwanted to conduct judicial activities at this court,” he said.
Attorney General and former SCBA President Mahbubey Alam urged the Justice Bhuiyan to step down.
Addressing the meeting, he said: “The Jamaat had fulfilled its quota during the appointment of justices in the High Court during the regime of the last BNP-Jamaat government. Alongside him (Bhuiyan), there’re also a number of justices in the High Court who once were blessed by the Jamaat.”
“ If anyone shows his allegiance to any party after taking oath as judge, he has no rights to hold his post.”
He continued: “I would ask Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan: ‘Please quit the post. It’ll spare you as well as the judiciary from many controversies’. Rajib is the leader of this generation; I strongly condemn the attempts to tarnish his (Rajib) character.”
Former Vice-Chairman of Bangladesh Bar Council Abdul Baset Majumder termed the mass upsurge at Shahbagh as second chapter of the Great War of Liberation. The anti-liberation elements were trying to foil the movement by killing Rajib in a premeditated way.
“When the government is trying to arrest the killers, many are trying to make Rajib controversial. And a High Court judge has joined the plot in the latest move.”
Majumder commented that the judge had violated his oath and so it was necessary to from a supreme judicial council to take action against him.
Former SCBA President AFM Mesbahuddin, former General Secretary SM Rezaul Karim, members Advocate Anisul Haque, Subrata Chowdhury, Azhar Ullah Bhuiyan, Rabiul Alam Budu, Mosharraf Hossain Sarder, AKM Tawhidur Rahman, Syed mamun Mahbub and Sheikh Sirajul Islam Siraj also addressed the meeting, among others.
