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Newly appointed chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed on Monday said that in the past years repression descended upon people instead of justice delivered to them.

Justice Refaat Ahmed made the remark in his felicitation speech to the lawyers.

Supreme Court Bar Association president AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon on behalf of the lawyers, and attorney general Md Asaduzzaman on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General, felicitated the new chief justice as a custom, on the eve of his first day at office.

Appellate Division judge  Md Ashfaqul Islam and all the High Court judges were present during the felicitation. 

The chief justice said that everyone knew the reason behind the student movement against discrimination.

People now stood in the debris, he said.  

‘Our judicial mind and the values of fair justice have been damaged and distorted in the past years,’ continued Justice Refaat Ahmed.  

Deceit in place of honesty, deprivation in place of safeguarding rights, repression in place of delivering justice, torture in place of protection became the norm, but people did not aspire for such a country, he observed.

‘We need to start the journey anew standing on the debris of the country,’ the chief justice said.  

He said that it was a great challenge to rebuild and repair the nation and the judiciary. 

Students kindled a great awakening against discrimination, he said.

‘In the past, injustice was considered as justice,’ he added.

‘I will carry out the responsibility that has been bestowed on my shoulders as a result of the student revolution,’ he said.

Lawyers attending the event thronged the chief justice’s courtroom and court corridor as well.   

Attorney general Md Asaduzzaman in his speech hoped that the newly appointed chief justice would not deviate as the guardian of the constitution in protecting people’s rights and establishing democracy in the country.

The attorney general further said that he hoped the judiciary became free of the syndicate and a clean-up campaign conducted in the apex court administration to cleanse it of all the corruption.