SJC comes into effect again

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has decided to instruct the judges of both the Appellate and the High Court divisions of the Supreme Court to send the records of all the cases in which the full texts of the verdicts and orders have not been announced in six months to the office concerned by October 4.

The three-member the SJC, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, held the meeting at the CJ's office on Sunday, five days after the apex court released the full text of its verdict in the 16th constitutional amendment case, said SC sources.

This was the first meeting of SJC after its restoration following the scrapping of the constitutional amendment by the SC. Its last meeting was held in September 2014 before the Jatiya Sangsad passed the 16th constitutional amendment abolishing the decades-old chief justice-led SJC.

The SJC also decided that the CJ would issue transfer orders for the bench officer and the assistant bench officer of the SC after October 4.

Two other SJC members, Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, were present at the meeting.

Yesterday, SC Registrar General Syed Aminul Islam issued a notice regarding the meeting decisions.

Earlier, the SC had issued a directive that the full judgments and orders of the courts must be released within six months after their announcements in open courts.

The 16th constitutional amendment was challenged with the HC in November 2014. The court in May last year declared the amendment unconstitutional and void as it found the change went against the principles of the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

The government in January this year filed an appeal with the SC against the HC verdict. The SC in July rejected the appeal and upheld the HC verdict.

In its full verdict released on Tuesday, the apex court said the independence of the judiciary was undermined and curtailed by making the judiciary “vulnerable to a process of removal of the judges by parliament”.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting on Monday, more than a dozen ministers said the SJC cannot be restored automatically under any circumstances. They said parliament has to amend the constitution if the SJC was needed to be brought back, according to meeting sources.