Judges' code of conduct: SC more empowered, says law minister

Law Minister Anisul Huq today said the power of the Supreme Court has not been curtailed rather has been increased following the issuance of the gazette notification determining the disciplines for lower court judges.

“It has been clearly stated in section 29 (2) of the disciplinary rules that if the proposal of the competent authority (president) and the Supreme Court’s advice are not same, the latter (SC advice) will get priority. It was never in the past,” he said.

The minister said this while talking to reporters at his office in Bangladesh Secretariat.

The government on Monday issued a gazette notification on the disciplines of lower court judges, keeping the president's authority over their conduct.

Under the rules titled “Bangladesh Judicial Service (Discipline) Rules 2017”, the president will make necessary decisions in consultation with the Supreme Court, and the law ministry will implement those.

About the criticism against the disciplinary rules, Minister Anisul Huq said the people, who criticised the rules, are doing so without understanding it (rules).

The government has no objection to the constructive criticism, he said, adding that if the critics study on the rules, they cannot find criticisms in it. 

Earlier in the day, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that the government has issued the gazette notification on the disciplinary rules for lower court judges keeping its control over it as part of a “serious conspiracy”.

“We've struggled for a long time for the independence of the judiciary, and talked much about it...Now they (government) have taken the lower judiciary under the administration again,” he said while speaking at a discussion at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU).