Law minister's remarks tantamount to contempt of court
The Supreme Court Bar Association chief yesterday alleged that Law Minister Anisul Huq's comments about a judge who dissented in a war crimes verdict but has not written the full judgment yet were tantamount to "serious contempt of court".
Addressing a press conference at SCBA, Khandker Mahbub Hossain said he could not believe the law minister who was a competent lawyer and had long practiced in the SC would make such comments.
The minister said on Monday, as quoted by the Bangla daily Prothom Alo, "A judge (of the Appellate Division) has dissented in a verdict but has not written the judgment yet. As per law, a verdict cannot be executed until its full text is released. He has been requested to write it. Let's see. 'You dissented. If you are so judicious, what is the problem in writing the verdict?' It might be part of a conspiracy.”
On November 3 last year, three of the four judges of an SC bench sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to death for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971, while one gave dissenting opinions. He has not been executed yet due to unavailability of the full judgment.
Khandker Mahbub, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, said action should be taken if the law minister did not tell the people immediately that his statement was wrong.
SC judges usually need much time to write verdicts for examination of the legal points and arguments, he said, mentioning that the apex court released the full verdict in the caretaker government case after 16 months into its pronouncement, on fatwa (religious edicts) after 44 months, and on Abdul Quader Mollah, an executed war criminal, after 11 months.
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