Appellate Division expunges HC judge’s remarks on Ziaur Rahman

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today expunged remarks made by the High Court judge, Justice Md Ashraful Kamal, about late president Ziaur Rahman in the 2016 verdict of the "Asaduzzaman Vs Bangladesh" case.

In the full text of its recent 50-page judgement, the Appellate Division criticised Justice Ashraful, saying that he had violated both the constitution and the code of conduct for judges.

The apex court further reinstated the Supreme Judicial Council's authority under Article 96 of the constitution, allowing it to handle allegations of incapacity or misconduct against Supreme Court judges.

"A High Court judge may not be corrupt in monetary affairs but can be intellectually corrupt. The third judge (Justice Ashraful ) made the aforesaid remarks mala fide with the intention of gaining favour from the ruling party in the future," the verdict read.

The judgment also condemned the language used by Justice Ashraful, describing his words as "abusive, vulgar and indecent."

It ruled that he had breached both judicial ethics and Article 111 of the constitution.

The six-member Appellate Division bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, delivered the verdict on October 20 last year while disposing of a civil review petition filed by the previous government. The petition challenged the Supreme Court's 2017 judgement that had declared the 16th amendment unconstitutional.

Before the 16th Amendment was made in 2014, the Supreme Judicial Council -- comprising the chief justice and two other senior judges of the Appellate Division -- had the authority to probe such allegations and make necessary recommendations to the president for action.

However, when the High Court, in May 2016, scrapped the 16th Amendment, parliament lost its power to deal with the matter. The council could not be made functional, as the then government challenged the High Court verdict at the Appellate Division.

Even after the Appellate Division upheld the High Court verdict in July 2017, paving the way to make the council functional, the government filed a review petition, which created the legal stalemate.

In the full text of the judgement, the Appellate Division observed, "The Civil Review Petition is disposed of unanimously with the observations. Resultantly, Article 96 of the Constitution stands restored in its entirety without any ambiguity whatsoever."

In the judgement, Justice Ashraful observed that Major General Ziaur Rahman was not only a collaborator of the killers of the Father of the Nation and his family members but also of the killers of the four national leaders. He also rewarded the murderers of Bangabandhu and his family members by appointing them as ambassadors, parliamentarians, etc.

"What he did more heinously was that his government formulated the Indemnity Act, which stopped the trial of the murderers of the elected President, the Father of the Nation, and his family members."

"The people were astonished to see that Major General Ziaur Rahman had joined hands with the murderers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members, and the murderers of four national leaders, and completely illegally and unconstitutionally seized the office of President -- which can be said in a word -- seized the people's institutions at gunpoint," Justice Ashraful said in the verdict.

He was appointed as an additional judge of the High Court on December 12, 2010 for two years, and his appointment was confirmed on December 10, 2012 during the Sheikh Hasina-led government.