Govt gets 2 weeks more for gazette

The Supreme Court today gave more two weeks’ time to the government to publish a gazette notification on the rules determining discipline and conduct of lower court judges.

An eight-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order during hearing of the Masdar Hossain case, known as judiciary separation case.

It also adjourned the hearing of the case till March 14.

During today’s hearing, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam sought two weeks’ time for resolving the issue involving the issuance of a gazette notification in this regard.

The lower judiciary was officially separated in November 2007 but the disciplinary rules for lower court judges are yet to be finalised.

The government had drafted the rules and sent those to the SC for its opinion. The court revised the draft rules in the light of the 1999 verdict in the separation of the judiciary case.

On February 13 this year, the apex court hoped that the government would issue a gazette notification on the rules determining discipline and conduct of lower court judges by today.

Earlier, the SC directed the government several times to publish a gazette notification on the rules.

On December 12 last year, the apex court asked the law ministry to issue a gazette notification on the rules by January 15 this year.

The court on that day observed that the president has been misinformed about issuance of the gazette.

The SC came up with the observation a day after the law ministry issued a notification which said the president decided not to issue a separate gazette on the conduct rules.