BNP hails top court verdict on parliament's powers to impeach judges

The BNP has described Supreme Court’s decision against the 16th Amendment to the constitution as “the people’s victory.”

The amendment, passed in 2014, allowed members of parliament to remove top court judges on grounds of incompetence and misconduct.

In November of the same year, nine Supreme Court lawyers filed a petition with the High Court challenging the legal basis of the amendment. They secured a verdict in their favour in May last year.

The state then went to the Appellate Division contesting the decision.

On Monday, a seven-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha scrapped the state's petition against the verdict.

“The top court has foiled government’s plot to influence the judiciary. We hail this decision,” Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told the media.

He said the parliament would have tried to manipulate judges if it had the powers to remove them. “With this historic decision, the Supreme Court has wiped out any of those possibilities. It has assured people that they will be served with justice.”

According the senior BNP leader 'a one-party House with an evil motive' passed the 16th Amendment.

Bangladesh’s Constitution drafted in 1972 had given the MPs the power to impeach judges and decide their term in office. But after the Fourth Amendment in 1975, the power was vested with the president.

The Fifth Amendment, brought on during military dictator Ziaur Rahman’s regime, legalised the formation of a Supreme Judicial Council to impeach judges.