Khandker Mahbub Hossain, President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) said on Wednesday that the comment of the Prime Minister and that of the Law Minister on the country’s judiciary tantamount to contempt of court.
Sitting in the highest seat of power making such comment is a threat to the Supreme Court, he said addressing a press conference at the auditorium of SCBA.
If the Supreme Court does not take any step against such comment, he said, that would mean that the court is afraid of the government.
Khandker Mahbub said that the prime minister’s comment on the judiciary is a direct interference in the independence of the country’s judicial system.
Law Minister Anisul Huq at a seminar at Brac Inn centre in the city on Monday said the judiciary should not cross its jurisdiction while dealing with public interest litigations (PIL) cautioning that it could lead to ‘judicial anarchy’.
Such comments of the law minister amounts to turning the judicial system submissive to the
government, SCBA president observed.
Khandker Mahbub said, ” We condemn and also protest the remarks made by the prime minister and the law minister about the country’s judiciary.”
Khandker Mahbub Hossain on Wednesday brought to the notice of the Supreme Court the comments of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and that of law minister about the judiciary. He placed before the apex court twonewspaper reports in the morning and sought necessary orders in this regard.
The Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, received the reports published in The Daily Star and Bangla Daily Prothom Alo, and advised Mahbub to place the reports before a ‘proper court’.
Later, Mahbub together with other SCBA members placed before the High Court bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar the two reports.
They went out of the HC bench as it did not pass any order on the issue.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a press conference at Ganobhaban on Saturday referred to the May 11 HC order that asked the authorities to arrest three former RAB-11 officials and said, “When we were still investigating the matter … and before that investigation was complete … you (journalists) tell us how come a High Court bench orders the arrest of the three?”, it should be recalled.
