Govt appeals bogging down High Court

The Supreme Court Bar Association yesterday said the High Court proceedings had been "abnormally hampered" because the Appellate Division stayed HC's ad-interim orders following a glut of petitions filed by the government.

The allegation was made in a resolution adopted by SCBA at its general meeting. The resolution cites a host of reasons why the association of lawyers decided not to bid farewell to the outgoing chief justice, M Muzammel Hossain, straying from the tradition.

Dominated by pro-BNP lawyers, SCBA said the outgoing CJ constituted benches of the apex court through "nepotism and corruption".

Justice Muzammel retires on Friday.

The association, however, decided to accord reception to his successor, Surendra Kumar Sinha, who will take the office of the chief justice on Saturday, SCBA President Khandker Mahbub Hossain told reporters at his office room.

Citing some more reasons, he said the lower courts had not been freed from the clasp of the executive although the judiciary was separated in 2007. Rather, the ruling party's sway on the lower courts has become immense, he added.

Khandker Mahbub said the law ministry took all the steps for transfer and posting of lower court judges securing the SC's approval "nominally", and the apex court approved almost all recommendations of the law ministry due to a shortage of manpower. “We have not seen the chief justice taking necessary steps in this regard.”

The veteran lawyer said police had arrested SCBA member MU Ahmed in a petty case and "tortured" him, leading to his early death" because he was not granted bail in a petty case. But Muzammel Hossain did not take any initiative as chief justice, he added.

Khandker Mahbub went on saying that the outgoing CJ also refrained from taking any steps against the "attack on lawyers by the ruling party goons" on the SC premises on December 29, 2013.

According to the resolution, though police had arrested SCBA President-elect Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Secretary-elect AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon in "false" cases, the CJ did not make any move. It was a detestable act, it added.

The chief justice is the protector of the constitution but he shied away from taking action to defend people's basic rights recognised in the constitution when aggressive attacks had been made on them in the last few years, the resolution said.

He also did not give assistance in preserving the lawyers' rights, it added.