For more than a week, the Chief Justice had been inaccessible to the lawyers or anybody from the general public. The story that was developing since then sounds like material of Hitchcock’s detective enigma. Any clearance from the Law Minister to see the Chief Justice was not also believable. He said the lawyers could see him but the police stopped the lawyers like before.
Soon after the Chief Justice Mr SK Sinha disappeared from public eye on the ground of ill health, as told, the senior lawyers of the Supreme Court and some retired judges appeared in the open court of the Appellate Division to express their anxiety about the Chief Justice Sinha. The court was presided over by the Acting Chief Justice Mr Abdul Wahhab Miah. It was an unprecedented instance for an unprecedented occurrence, yet their Lordships heard them.
They submitted that they could not see the Chief Justice when they went to his residence. They were informed that Mr Sinha was in good condition but he would not see them.
They further informed their Lordships that they were hearing all sorts of dark stories about the state of the Chief Justice. As the Chief Justice was the Chief Justice of their Lordships also they came to seek their help to be able to meet the Chief Justice. The Acting Chief Justice said he had talked to him. But he also did not say anything about his (CJ) health.
There was no difficulty for the Law Minister to visit the Chief Justice at his residence more than once. The Prime Minister’s special envoy Mr Gowhar Rizvi also met him. The Chief Justice also joined Hindu religious festivity. So he was not incapacitated by health condition.
The government story that the Chief Justice was suffering from cancer and became unable to function as Chief Justice appears unbelievable, especially when he met government people but not the senior lawyers of the Supreme Court. What is unbelievable is the staff of a detective story.
The latest turn of events is that the Chief Justice Mr Sinha along with his wife last night left for Australia. He had no problems in getting the visas on an emergency basis. The government must have been very cooperative and relieved.
What many people are wondering is how the government will be benefited by forcing the Chief Justice to go to Australia under the circumstances of obvious duress. The news is not that he was going to Australia for treatment.
It is a matter of public knowledge that after the judgement he gave declaring the constitutional provision for impeaching the Supreme Court judges by the Parliament as unconstitutional, the government and its supporters subjected him to vitriolic attacks unheard of. He suffered the humiliation quietly. Though the judgement was unanimously passed by seven judges. All the eminent lawyers including Dr Kamal Hossain expressed the same view that the judiciary cannot loose its independence to the Parliament of One House. The government people asked the Chief Justice to resign.
The fact is that the judgement in question has not gone away with the Chief Justice. The educated ones guess is the government was most worried about his observation that the Parliament was non-functional. It was also feared by the government that the judgement of former Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque on the invalidity of the election time caretaker government was likely to come for review before the Chief Justice Sinha if he so remained. He could not be trusted.
It is now clear that the government story about the illness of the Chief Justice was the imagination of wise men in the government. It is also believable that the Chief Justice Mr Sinha was kept confined to get things done.
One can have the satisfaction of showing power to force the Chief Justice of the country to go outside in humiliation. Lies told about his health and confinement do not matter.
One can have the satisfaction of showing power to force the Chief Justice of the country to go outside in humiliation. Lies told about his health and confinement do not matter.
How the lesson will be learnt by the other judges will have to be seen.
We are also not sure how the drama centring the Chief Justice will finally end. We do not claim to be so wise as men in the government who were engaged in the manipulation of facts, but we can only say that ejecting out the Chief Justice of the country so ignominiously for reasons of disagreement with a judgement will not bring plaudits for the government.
