CJ resignation
Judiciary freed from burden: AG
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said that the judiciary has been freed from a burden following the resignation of the Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha. The chief law officer of the state also said that the resignation of Chief Justice SK Sinha caused no constitutional void in the country.
The judiciary has freed from burden following Chief Justice resignation. His resignation will not leave any effect on the countrys judiciary. He had no other option but to resign as no one in the judiciary with corruption charges or moral turpitude shall hold his post, attorney general Mahbubey Alam made the comments at a briefing at his Supreme Court office, a day after the Chief Justice sent his resignation letter to the President from abroad. In response to a query, Alam said that the resignation letter would be sent to the law ministry from the President. The law ministry will issue a gazette notification over the matter. As per the constitutional provision, the resignation will be accepted, if the resignation letter is given to the President, Alam added.
In response to another query, the chief law officer of the state said that the judges of the Appellate Division have refused to seat with Chief Justice in dispensing judicial functions when they were informed about the corruption charges or moral turpitude of the Chief Justice SK Sinha. Hence, against such backdrop I have told the media that the joining of Chief Justice SK Sinha at office after returning from abroad is a far cry, Alam said.
On Friday, Chief Justice resigned from his post following weeks of controversy over his sickness, leave and travel abroad.
His resignation came in the wake of debates and widespread criticisms by the ruling party over an apex court verdict restoring the provision of Supreme Judicial Council by annulling parliaments authority to remove Supreme Court judges for misconduct or incapacity.
It is the first instance in which the countrys Chief Justice has stepped down. Justice Sinha sent his resignation letter to the President, Abdul Hamid, from Singapore on Friday night.
Sinha, the first non-Muslim Chief Justice in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, had assumed office on January 17, 2015. He was scheduled to retire on January 21 next year. On August 24, Justice Sinha sat in his office for the last time before the annual vacation of the apex court started.
On October 2, just a day before the vacation ended, law minister Anisul Huq and Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the media that the Chief Justice had taken a months leave on health ground.
Justice Sinha left Bangladesh for Australia on October 13. Before leaving Dhaka, Sinha told reporters that he was quite embarrassed about how a specific political quarter, including some ministers and the prime minister herself, had criticised him over one of his rulingsthe 16th Amendment verdict.
A day later, the Supreme Court issued a statement saying that Justice Sinha faced 11 specific charges, including graft, money laundering, and moral lapse, for which his colleagues in the Appellate Division refused to work with him. Regarding the investigation of the allegations, the law minister Anisul Huq said that law would take its own course regarding the investigation into the 11 allegations levelled against Justice Sinha by his five colleagues. Nobody is above the law, he said.
