Judiciary getting non-cooperation
CJ critical of law ministry; extends stay on mobile court verdict till July 2
Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday said the judiciary was becoming dysfunctional due to non-cooperation from the law ministry.
He asked Attorney General Mahbubey Alam to convey this to the government for a solution.
“We say many things in the open court during the proceedings, but some of them are misinterpreted. The judiciary is not against the government. It [judiciary] always delivers order and verdict in the interest of protecting law and order,” the chief justice said.
He made the comment while presiding over a seven-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court during the hearing of three government petitions seeking stay on the High Court verdict that declared unconstitutional the rules under which executive magistrates run mobile courts.
The apex court bench, however, extended until July 2 its chamber judge's order that stayed the HC verdict, clearing the way for the executive magistrates to run mobile courts until July 2.
It adjourned the hearing on the petitions until July 2 and asked the government to file three separate leave-to-appeal petitions with this court against the HC verdict within this period.
Delivering a verdict on three writ petitions on May 11, the HC declared unconstitutional the rules under which executive magistrates run mobile courts. It also observed that empowering executive magistrates with judicial powers is “a frontal attack on the independence of the judiciary and is violative of the theory of separation of powers”.
On May 14, the government filed three separate provisional leave-to-appeal petitions with the SC seeking stay on the HC verdict.
Following the government petitions, the apex court the same day stayed the HC verdict and sent the petitions to its full bench for their hearing.
While moving the stay petitions, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the court that 37 incidents of child marriage reportedly took place in Dinajpur in four days when the mobile courts were inoperative following the HC verdict.
However, the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017 makes it mandatory for the local administration to take action to stop child marriage. According to Section-4 of the act, upon receiving information that a child marriage is taking place, the UNO, women affairs officers, social welfare officers and education officers, among other officials in the upazila, have to act to stop the marriage.
The attorney general also argued that adulteration of food and price hike of daily essentials would take place during the upcoming month of Ramadan and stalking and illegal extraction of sand would increase if mobile courts were not run.
During yesterday's hearing, the chief justice wanted to know how executive magistrates could try and punish offenders by running mobile courts and whether the attorney general wants to run a parallel court in the name of executive magistrate-led mobile court.
The attorney general said mobile courts need to be run for taking instant action against the offence and its immediate effect.
Writ petitioners' lawyer Barrister Hassan MS Azim opposed the government's stay petitions.