Dhaka: Expressing dissatisfaction over repeated time pleas by the government, Chief Justice (CJ) Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday admonished the law ministry, saying it should not irritate the Supreme Court. The consequence would be very serious if ministry officials tried to dominate the apex court, he said.
“The law ministry is giving a wrong explanation to the President about foreign trips by judicial officials on deputation, without consulting the apex court. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Those in the law ministry rank from assistant judges to senior district judge. If they feel that the Supreme Court will act on their decision, they are making a serious mistake,” the CJ made the observation during hearing on the Mazdar Hossain case, commonly referred to as the “judiciary separation case”.
The seven-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Sunrendra Kumar Sinha, gave two more weeks to the government to publish the gazette notification on rules determining the discipline and conduct of lower-court judges. Attorney general Mahbubey Alam had moved a time plea seeking two more weeks to issue the gazette notification.
After the attorney general moved the petition, the CJ asked: “Why have you submitted the time plea?”
The chief law officer of the state said: “The process is going on.”
“We cannot understand whether we should laugh or cry. Whatever, I cannot say anything. We want to run the judiciary under a system,” the CJ replied.
Newspapers have reported that there is a conflict between the law ministry and the Supreme Court, the CJ said.
“Ask your law ministry to read Section 21 of the General Clauses Act. The judicial officials working on deputation are not government employees. The apex court wants to know the names of deputation officials going abroad,” he added.
The CJ told law ministry officials not to irritate the apex court. As a wrong explanation was given to the President, the file is still in the President's office, he said.
On several occasions earlier, the apex court had expressed dissatisfaction over the government’s failure to issue gazette notifications.
On May 15, the Supreme Court gave the government two more weeks to issue the gazette notification. Later, on May 8, it gave one more week.
On April 4, the Supreme Court extended the deadline till May 8. On March 14, it extended the time by two weeks. Before that, on February 27, the court had given the government two weeks to publish the gazette notification, as it had failed to publish it in time. On February 5, the court ordered the authorities concerned to issue the gazette notification by February 12. On November 24, 2016, it gave the government one week to publish the gazette notification.
The lower judiciary was officially separated in November 2007, but the disciplinary rules for lower -ourt judges are yet to be formulated. On December 2, 1999, the Supreme Court, in the Mazdar Hossain case, had issued a seven-point directive, including formulating separate disciplinary rules, for the lower-court judges. On May 7, 2015, the law ministry sent a draft of the rules, similar to the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985, to the Supreme Court.
