Rare absence of SC judges marks oath

Newly appointed High Court judges pose for photograph with Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim after taking oath at the Judges' Lounge of the Supreme Court yesterday. Photo: Star

Breaking away from the tradition, no judges of the Appellate Division were present yesterday when the chief justice swore in the newly appointed 15 High Court judges.
Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim administered the oath at the Judges' Lounge of the Supreme Court in the morning, leaving out judges Ruhul Quddus Babu and Md Khasruzzaman as per his earlier decision.
Senior lawyers observed that both the incidents--the CJ's decision not to swear in the two judges and the apex court judges' absenting themselves from the oath-taking ceremony--are unprecedented.
However, many HC judges attended the function.
Five Appellate Division judges yesterday attended their benches for judicial function, but the reasons for their not attending the ceremony could not be learnt.
When approached, one of these judges refused to talk to the media.
Additional Registrar of the Supreme Court M Atowar Rahman told The Daily Star that he did not know the reasons why the Appellate Division judges were absent from the oath-taking ceremony.
Preferring not to be named, a former chief justice yesterday told The Daily Star that the Appellate Division judges' absence signifies a difference of their opinion with the chief justice, which might have arisen following the chief justice's decision not to administer the two newly appointed judges on oath.
Asked if the en masse absence of the SC judges constitutes a "no confidence" in the apex court, he said he did not think so because difference of opinion is "an expression of the judges' free thoughts", which is not bad.
The former CJ said such contending opinions might result in the Appellate Division judges delivering dissenting judgments in cases but those judgments will not have any adverse impact on the administration of justice.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam termed the SC judges' absence unprecedented.
He expressed hope that the chief justice would administer Ruhul Quddus and Khasruzzaman on oath soon since the president of the country appointed them as per the constitution.
"Ruhul Quddus Babu is an efficient and honest lawyer. We do not want to lose a judge like him," he said, adding that the allegation against Khasruzzaman that he kicked on the door of the CJ's courtroom is also false and baseless.
The quarter that filed a case against Ruhul Quddus on charge of killing a Shibir worker is spreading propaganda against him on political purpose, he said.
Supreme Court Bar Association President Khandaker Mahbub Hossain refrained from making any comment on the judges' absence from the oath-taking ceremony, saying, "We [the SCBA] were not aware of the incident."
Speaking at a press briefing at his SCBA office, he however thanked the chief justice for not administering Ruhul Quddus and Khasruzzaman on oath. He said the chief justice did the right thing.
He demanded that the government cancel appointments of Ruhul Quddus and Khasruzzaman.
"If the chief justice swears them in, we will launch a tough movement," he said.
Former SCBA president barrister Rokan Uddin Mahmud told The Daily Star that this is the first time that the Appellate Division judges in a body remained absent from the oath-taking ceremony.
The 15 judges who took their oath of office are SC Registrar Md Shawkat Hossain, Additional Attorney General AKM Zahirul Hoque, district and sessions judges of Dhaka Krishna Debnath and ANM Bashir Ullah, Deputy Attorney General FRM Nazmul Ahsan, former deputy attorney general JBM Hasan, and SC lawyers M Faruk, Abdur Rob, Kazi Reza-Ul Huq, Md Abu Zafar Siddiqui, Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain, Habibul Gani, Gobinda Chandra Tagore, Sheikh Hasan Arif and Jahangir Hossain Selim.