Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked her Cabinet colleagues not to issue any reaction over the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, a senior minister said, quoting the PM after the Cabinet meeting.
The Prime Minister’s directive came after law minister advocate Anisul Huq informed her of the verdict of the Appellate Division of the SC upholding the High Court verdict that declared illegal the 16th amendment to the Constitution that had empowered Parliament to impeach judges.
The PM has told the ministers that the judgement has proved once again how independent the judiciary is in Bangladesh. “Please wait and see until the full verdict of the SC is available,” the PM said.
Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Anisul Huq said he would not make any comment without receiving the full text of the verdict. “I don’t understand how it has become ultra vires to the Constitution when Parliament restored it after a martial law ruler put it before the Supreme Judicial Council in the Constitution, which replaced Article 96 of the constitution of 1972,” he said.
“I hope the full text of the verdict will be available soon and then I’ll issue my comments,” he added.
Replying to a question, the law minister stated that the content mentioned in Article 96 of the Constitution described the process of impeachment of a Justice in all the democratic and developed countries in the world, and that was why it was included in the constitution of 1972.
“The Supreme Judicial Council was also included in the constitution amended by Ayub Khan in 1962,” he said. Ayub Khan was Pakistan’s military ruler.
Asked whether there will be any problem after the verdict regarding the Supreme Judicial Council, Huq said there would be something more different from what was there in the past. “It was different before 2014, and now Parliament has scrapped it,” he added.
Dismissing the government’s appeal, a seven-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the HC verdict on Monday. It had declared illegal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which had empowered Parliament to impeach judges.
