Judge Shahidur axed
Additional Judge of the High Court Division Syed Shahidur Rahman
was removed from office on 18th April in the first ever verdict of the
Supreme Judicial Council on a judge's gross misconduct. President Iajuddin
Ahmed signed the removal of Shahidur, charged with taking Tk 50,000
in bribe to fix bail for an accused in a women repression case. Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia on April 18 approved the presidential note. Former
chief justice KM Hasan, who headed the three-member council, handed
over the verdict report to the president on his last day in office for
action against the judge. The first-ever council opened an investigation
into the misconduct of Shahidur after Supreme Court Bar Association
President Rokanuddin Mahmud on October 15 last year came up with the
allegation. Meanwhile protesting his removal, Syed Shahidur Rahman will
file a writ petition in two weeks to challenge the order as he told
the newspaper on 21st April Wednesday, a day after receiving his dismissal
order for misconduct. Mr. Shahidur rejected the council report and the
removal decision terming them as 'flawed, unfair and illegal'. -The
Daily Star 22nd April
Builders
caught in lawsuits
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakhsha (Rajuk), the city planning authority
of Dhaka, is in a dilemma with thousands of lawsuits that render its
initiatives to contain building code violations ineffective. Rajuk Chairman
Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury said building code violations are so wide and
varied that it has become well nigh impossible for Rajuk inspectors
to find a single building in the metropolis free of the fault. In most
cases, building code violators get away with their acts by seeking and
getting stay orders from courts on Rajuk interventions. For example,
recently, Rajuk cancelled the plan of a building in Lalmatia for a number
of building code violations and took measures to demolish the structure.
The developer went to a court and obtained an order to maintain the
status quo invalidating the Rajuk initiative and continued with construction
of the six-storey house. As many as 5,000 such cases are pending with
different law courts, said a Rajuk official. -The Daily Star, 22nd
April
Magistrate
violates law
A magistrate yesterday violated a Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) ordinance
by sentencing 62 women, arrested ahead of the Awami League's Hawa Bhaban
siege programme, to three-day imprisonment before the police took them
to court. As per the ordinance, every arrestee has to be produced before
a court to defend oneself and the judge is to ask whether he or she
pleads guilty or not. The magistrate yesterday failed to follow that
provision. The 62 women were punished with imprisonment along with a
fine of Tk 50 each, in default of which they would be confined for an
additional two days. The breach of the ordinance by the magistrate prompted
anger among the lawyers, relatives of the accused and others present
in the court, who shouted protests and questioned the validity of the
ruling. -The Daily Star, 22nd April.
Ershad
Sikdar to be hanged
The authorities have decided to hang notorious criminal Ershad Shikdar
on May 10 after his mercy petition was turned down by President Iajuddin
Ahmed. Khulna Jail Superintendent Farhad Mia fixed the date in accordance
with section 6 of the jail code after being officially informed about
the president's decision. Ershad Shikder was given the death penalty
by a Khulna court on April 30, 2000, for murdering Jubo League leader
Khalid Hossain. The High Court Division upheld the judgement of the
Khulna special court and the Appellate Division also dismissed a subsequent
review petition on March 21. On April 9, Ershad petitioned the president
to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment, but the president
also rejected the petition. - Prothom Alo, 21st April.
Govt
faces contempt charge
The government faces contempt of court proceedings for violating the
Supreme Court (SC)'s directives on separation of judiciary. On 17 April,
The SC set 19 April for hearing a contempt petition filed by Chowdhury
Monir Uddin Mahfuz, Chairman of Khulna and Barisal division labour court.
Secretaries of law, establishment and finance ministries were made respondents
in the petition. After a brief hearing on the matter Chamber Judge Tafazzal
Islam, passed the order for hearing the petition before the full court.
The petitioner specified three major grounds for drawing contempt proceedings.
They are: (1) The manner the government constituted the Judicial Service
Commission (JSC) for the purpose of recruitment of judges flagrantly
violates the SC directives given in the Mazder Hossain case in December
1999; (2) The government by constituting the JSC purports to place judicial
service on a par with the civil executive/administrative service and
to amalgamate, replace, mix up and tie together with the civil executive/administration
services, which is prohibited by the directives; and (3) The JSC was
formed with majority civil executive/administrative officials ignoring
the directives, which is a mala fide device to control the judges. -
The Daily Star, 18 April 2004.
Rule
on govt for accusing a 3-year-old kid
The High Court Division on 17 April issued suo moto rule asking the
government to show cause within April 24 why the proceeding of the criminal
case against the three-year old child Iman Ali, son of Anwar Ali, should
not be quashed. The court directed the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate,
Dhaka, to send the record of the case to the High Court Division before
April 24 positively. A division bench comprising Justice Nazmun Ara
Sultana and Justice A K M Asaduzzaman passed the order. As per Section
82 of the Bangladesh Penal Code implicating a child below seven years
of age in a criminal case is illegal since nothing is an offence which
is done by a child under seven years. The concerned police officer has
acted beyond his jurisdiction and committed illegality in accepting
and registering a criminal case against a child of three years, the
High Court said in the order. The rule was issued upon the Secretary,
Ministry of Home Affairs, District Magistrate and Deputy Commissioner,
Dhaka, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka, Officer-in-Charge of (concerned)
police station. - News Today, 18 April 2004.
EU
rules on GM food
The
new European Union rules on labelling and tracing genetically modified
(GM) foods came into force on Sunday, in what could pave the way towards
lifting a five-year EU ban on bio-engineered crops. Consumer Rights
and Environmental Groups have welcomed the rules, officially adopted
last July, which requires food and animal feed to be labelled if they
contain at least 0.9 percent of GM ingredients. Producers and buyers
must also store all data about the origin, composition and sale of GM
products for a five-year period, which Brussels describes as the toughest
GM food regulations anywhere in the world. Environmentalists have welcomed
the measures as a chance for consumers to express their opposition to
GM foods. "Although imperfect, the laws will enable people to reject
this experiment (with GM foods) once and for all. According to Geert
Ritsema, of the Friends of the Earth pressure group. " - AFP, Brussels,
19th April.
