16th Amendment: Govt to file review plea this month

The government will file a petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court by the end of this month seeking review of its verdict that scrapped the 16th amendment to the constitution empowering parliament to remove SC judges for incapacity or misconduct.

The attorney general's office has finalised the draft of the petition containing around 100 grounds for seeking the review.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said his office is about to finalise the petition containing the grounds, on which the SC may consider the prayer for reconsidering its verdict.

“We are now scrutinising the grounds of the review petition. The number of the grounds may be changed when the petition will be filed after finalisation,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.

The top law officer of the state, however, refused to disclose the contents of the petition before filing it with the apex court.

His office had collected the certified copy of the Appellate Division judgement on November 26 for submitting the petition.

According to the SC rules, review petition has to be filed within 30 days of receiving the certified copy.

The attorney general earlier told this correspondent that the government in the petition would pray to the apex court to restore parliament's power to remove SC judges.

In the full verdict released on August 1, the apex court said the provision of Supreme Judicial Council for the removal of SC judges for misconduct or incapacity has been reinstated in the constitution. An 11-member committee, led by the attorney general, was formed in October for filing the review petition.

The dismissal of the 16th amendment to the constitution has been widely talked-about among politicians from the ruling party as the SC in its full verdict made some observations critical of the country's present political culture.