Tafazzul new chief justice

Justice Md Tafazzul Islam, a senior justice of the Supreme Court (SC), was appoin-ted chief justice yesterday.
President Zillur Rahman gave the appointment as per article 95(1) of the Constitution, an official handout said. But he superseded senior judge of the Appellate Division Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim.
Justice Tafazzul will replace the present Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin, who is going into retirement on December 22.
Justice MM Ruhul Amin will, however, discharge his responsibility as chief justice for 47 days, since he will go into retirement on February 8 next year.
Justice Tafazzul headed the five-member special bench of the SC Appellate Division that pronounced the landmark verdict in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassination case on November 19.
He was elevated as judge of the High Court in 1994 and Appellate Division in 2003.
He was the chairman of the enrolment committee of Bangladesh Bar Council and member of the Corporate Law Commission. He is now the chairman of Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission.
Justice Tafazzul attended the Commonwealth Judges Conference held in Sydney, Australia in 2003, 7th Saarc Law Conference held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1998 and chaired the session on “Intellectual property issues in the Saarc region” and Conference of “Judicial Heads of Muslim Countries” held in Tehran, Iran in 2007.
Born in 1943, Tafazzul obtained Bachelor of Honours and Masters' degree in History and LLB from the University of Dhaka.
The SC Bar Association is going to arrange a farewell ceremony tomorrow at the apex court for the judges who will go into retirement by the end of this year. Two other SC judges -- Justice Md Joynul Abedin and Md Abdul Aziz -- will go into retirement on December 31.