HC gets 9 additional judges

President Zillur Rahman yesterday appointed nine additional judges to the High Court (HC) Division of the Supreme Court (SC) beefing up the strength of the HC to deal with a huge backlog of cases.
Meanwhile, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told The Daily Star yesterday that at least three judges would be appointed to the Appellate Division of the apex court within a week or two.
The new HC judges, all appointed for a tenure of two years, are M Moazzem Hossain, Showmendra Sarker, Abu Bakar Siddiqui, M Enayetur Rahim, Naima Haider, M Nuruzzaman Nani, Obaidul Hassan Shaheen, M R Hassan and Moynul Hossain Chowdhury.
Showmendra Sarker was a Tangail sessions and district judge and Abu Bakar Siddiqui the registrar of the Supreme Court.
Enayetur Rahim served as the additional attorney general while Naima Haider and M Nuruzzaman Nani were deputy attorneys general.
The president made the appointments as per Article 98 of the Constitution of the country.
The appointments will come into effect once they are sworn in, according to a gazette notification.
Sources said the appointment of the new judges bring the total the number of HC judges to 82. There are seven judges for the Appellate Division and 73 for the HC Division at present.
Earlier this year, the government appointed 11 judges to the HC Division and two judges to the Appellate Division.