SC upholds 2004 presidential decision to remove HC additional judge Shahidur Rahman

The Supreme Court has upheld a 2004 presidential decision to remove High Court division’s additional judge Syed Shahidur Rahman.

A four-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kuman Sinha also scrapped an 2005 High Court verdict terming the move illegal.

The President had removed the judge on April 20, 2004 as recommended by the Supreme Judicial Council, which accused Shahidur Rahman of gross misconduct.

He moved the High Court challenging the presidential order removing him from office. After hearing of its ruling, the court in 2005 declared the president's order illegal. Shahidur Rahman by then had already filed an application to the Chief Justice to allocate him a bench in the High Court.

Idrisur Rahman, who filed the public interest litigation against the HC verdict, said the verdict effectively meant that the president’s order removing Rahman stays in force.

Rahman was appointed an HC additional judge in April 2003. In October the same year, a woman named Nasim Sultana accused the judge of having taken bribes to grant bail to a person implicated in a woman and child repression case.

She got in touch with Rokon Uddin Mahmud, the then Supreme Court Bar Association chairman, who informed the then chief justice KM Hasan.

On Oct 20, Hasan wrote about the matter to the president. 

Ten days later, the president ordered investigation into the allegation of the accusation in a Supreme Judicial Council. The law ministry issued a circular to that end.

Chief Justice KM Hasan, Justice Ruhul Amin and Justice Md Fazlul Karim conducted the investigation and submitted their report on Jan 26, 2004, according to media reports.

They said that the charge had not been proved beyond doubt but could not be dismissed as entirely baseless. It also suggested that Rahman should not continue as an additional judge.