No instruction yet on seeking review: AG
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said his office is yet to get any instruction from the government to file a petition with the Supreme Court seeking review of its judgment that upheld the High Court verdict scrapping the 16th amendment to the constitution.
He said this while talking to reporters at his office on the SC premises.
Passed in 2014, the 16th amendment had restored parliament's power to remove SC judges for misconduct or incapacity. Last year, the HC declared the amendment illegal.
The amendment brought to the constitution in 2014 abolished the chief justice-led Supreme Judicial Council system which was introduced in 1978.
Contacted, the attorney general told The Daily Star yesterday that his office is yet to receive the certified copy of the SC judgment on the 16th amendment although it has applied to the apex court office for the copy in July.
According to the SC rules, a review petition is to be filed within 30 days after receiving the certified copy from the apex court, Advocate Mahbubey Alam added.
On August 18, Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters that the government was preparing for seeking a review of the SC judgment in the case on the 16th amendment to the constitution.
“We respect the SC judgement, although we don't agree with some of its observations,” he said.
Earlier on August 13, the law minister told journalists that the government would seek a review of the SC judgement so that some of the comments made in the verdict by the chief justice could be expunged. The ruling Awami League lawmakers criticised the verdict and Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha who led the apex court bench to deliver it.
On the contrary, the BNP is praising the verdict, saying it exposed the government's misdeeds.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice Sinha is on leave now.
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