The government is likely to enact law in three months to determine the procedure of removal of Supreme Court judges on ground of misconduct or incapacity, Law Minister Anisul Huq said on Tuesday.
“Opinion will be sought from legal experts before formulating the draft of law,” he said while talking to reporters after attending a programme as the chief guest at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.
Anisul Huq said that he would not take any hasty decision in this regard since the law will be formulated on the basis of the experts’ opinions. The Law Minister’s remark came a day after President Abdul Hamid gave his assent to the 16th Constitution Amendment Bill empowering the Parliament to impeach the Supreme Court judges. With the President signing the Bill passed in the Parliament, the provision of Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) ceased to exist after more than 35 years of its promulgation. Now the Parliament is also vested with the authority to remove the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners, Chairmen and other Members of the Public Service Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Human Rights Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General on the same grounds.
The President gave his consent to the Bill on Monday noon when the BNP-led 20 party alliance was observing a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal protesting the Constitutional Amendment Bill. To protest the amendment, the pro-BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami lawyers boycotted court proceedings across the country Monday.
Parliament cannot remove SC judges or any of the aforementioned persons until the relevant law is made effective.
The Constitution effective from December 1972 empowered Parliament to remove SC judges by passing a resolution with two-third majority on ground of misconduct or incapacity.
But it could not be made effective as the law required to this end was not made. The situation, however, changed after two years. The Fourth Amendment to the charter in January 1975 curtailed the House’s power and bestowed the authority upon the President. Late President General Ziaur Rahman then introduced the provision of the SJC by amending the Constitution through a Martial Law proclamation, which was later ratified in the Fifth Amendment in 1979. The High Court in 2005 declared the Fifth Amendment illegal and void. Five years later, the Appellate Division upheld the HC verdict, but condoned the introduction of the SJC until December 2012.
The Awami League-led government reintroduced the SJC through the 15th Amendment to the charter in 2011.
However, it just took three years for the AL to change its mind and now it once again amended the Constitution to scrap the SJC and restore Parliament’s power to remove the apex court judges.
