The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will not rehear the 168 cases, which were awaiting written copies of the verdicts by former chief justice Md Muzammel Hossain and retired Appellate Division judge AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik.The Appellate Division also decided that the full verdicts and orders of the cases will be published within a month. A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order on Thursday morning. The apex court might rehear a few of the cases if necessary, SK Sinha added.Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the Chief Justice rightly took the decision. Earlier on April 26, a decision was taken to rehear the cases. On April 28, the SC took the decision to keep the cases on the cause list of the Appellate Division for rehearing. Of the 168 cases, 161 had been pending with Shamsuddin Choudhury and seven with the ex-Chief Justice. Of them, 107 cases have been kept on the Appellate Division cause list for rehearing with the bench, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha while the rest 61 cases with another bench, headed by Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah. Among the 161 cases, Justice Shamsuddin has completed writing the verdicts of most of them. However, Chief Justice SK Sinha asked for the rehearing as his judgments were not accepted for various reasons, SC sources said. On the other hand, former Chief Justice M Muzammel Hossain returned the files of the seven cases to the SC registrar office amid a dispute over writing judgments after retirement.Contacted, Anisur Rahman, personal secretary to the Chief Justice, said the SC took the decision on April 26 to keep the cases on the cause list of the Appellate Division for rehearing.Md Muzammel Hossain went on retirement on January 16, 2015 but he did not complete writing of the full verdicts of seven cases. Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury retired on October 1 last year.Orders and verdicts of 161 cases had been pending with him during his retirement. Following the issues of writing judgments after the retirement, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha in a message on the occasion of the first anniversary of his taking office on January 19 this year said some judges delay in writing judgments.Some of them even continue to write verdicts long after their retirement which goes against the law and the constitution. On February 8, Shamsuddin submitted 65 judgments and orders which he wrote after his retirement as an Appellate Division judge along with their files to the apex court.Later, he submitted some remaining judgments and orders along with their files in different times, he had claimed to reporters. Meanwhile, Justice Shamsuddin Chowdhury in a reaction raid that the CJ’s order is vengeful and illegal.
