SC upholds removal of addl HC judge
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday upheld a 2004 presidential order removing an additional High Court (HC) judge, Syed Sahidur Rahman, from office.
A four-member Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kuman Sinha, came up with the order, after scrapping a High Court verdict that had, in 2005, declared illegal the removal order.
The then president, Iajuddin Ahmed, had removed the additional judge on April 20, 2004, following a recommendation by the Supreme Judicial Council, which had accused Sahidur Rahman of gross misconduct.
Later, Sahidur Rahman filed a writ petition with the HC, challenging the presidential order.
In 2005, after hearing on the petition, the HC, in a verdict, declared the presidents order illegal.
After the HC order, Sahidur Rahman filed an application to the Chief Justice to allocate him a bench in the High Court, in accordance with the HC order.
Meanwhile, a Supreme Court lawyer, advocate Idrisur Rahman, filed an appeal with the apex court as a public interest litigation, challenging the HC verdict. In response to the appeal, the Appellate Division of the SC yesterday scrapped the HC order that had declared the presidents order illegal.
Idrisur Rahman told reporters that following the apex court order, the verdict effectively meant that the former presidents order, removing Sahidur Rahman, stays in force. Sahidur Rahman, who filed an application to the Chief Justice seeking a bench to sit at the HC for performing judicial functions as a judge, could not sit at the HC following the apex court order, he added.
