In an unprecedented move, the Bangladesh Supreme Court has decided to review at least 168 cases, which were awaiting written copies of verdicts given by former chief justice Mozzammel Hossain and retired Supreme Court judge AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik.
These cases have been included in the daily cause list of the Supreme Court (SC) for rehearing, court officials said.
Among the cases, a total of 161 cases were lying with Justice Manik, while the other seven were pending with former chief justice Hossain, sources in the Supreme Court said.
Justice Manik retired on
October 1 last year.
The sources also said that the two former senior judges had completed writing the copies of the verdicts of the cases. However, the write-up of the verdicts was not
acceptable.
Hence, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has directed the authorities to take initiatives for rehearing the cases, the sources added.
In accordance with the chief justice’s directives, the department concerned has collected the documents and paper books of the cases, and has prepared the cases for rehearing, he
added.
The Supreme Court will start hearing these cases after it reopens on May 2 after summer break.
The sources also disclosed that among the cases, a total of 100 cases will be heard by a Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, while the others will be heard by another Supreme Court bench led by Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah.
Before his retirement, Justice Manik was assigned to write verdicts in 161 cases. From time to time, the Supreme Court bench, led by him, held the hearing of these cases and only issued short orders, instead of writing full verdicts.
He spent more time in writing verdicts in cases that remained pending before him. As Justice Manik did not write the verdicts in time, Chief Justice Sinha, in a statement, termed writing verdicts after retirement as illegal and unconstitutional.
“Some judges take too long to write their judgments. Some others keep writing their verdicts long after their retirement, a practice that is against the law and the constitution,” he said.
Sinha, who was sworn in on January 17 last year, made the observations after his first year at Bangladesh’s highest
judicial post.
In a four-page statement, he admitted his failure to convince his colleagues that it is possible to finish writing the judgments of resolved cases within a
“reasonable” time.
“A judge is considered to be an ordinary citizen after his retirement and the oath taken by him also exhausts itself,” the chief justice said, explaining the illegal aspect of writing
judgments after retirement.
“Court papers are official documents. A judge loses his authority to keep such documents, to review them, or to prepare judgments and sign on them,” he said, adding: “I hope judges will refrain from such illegal practices in deference to the law.”
Earlier, Justice Manik had complained that the chief justice had withheld his pension for not completing writing judgments before
retirement.
He had cited this practice as being predominant among many judges in the past, alleging that “unfair treatment” was being meted out only to him.