The High Court on Thursday summoned home ministry senior secretary Nasimul Gani for allegedly violating the warrant of precedence by placing the chief justice alongside top government officials, including home secretary and inspector general of police, in determining security arrangements.
The court directed the senior secretary to appear before the bench of Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mahmudur Razi on March 18 to explain the matter in person.
The summon was issued suo motu after Supreme Court lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir brought the court鈥檚 attention to a government notification on security arrangements for state dignitaries, issued on March 2.
The court also stayed the operation of the notification for three months and asked the authorities to explain why the security guidelines should not be declared illegal for contradicting the warrant of precedence issued in 2020.
The court observed that the attorney general, additional attorney generals, public prosecutors, district judges, chief judicial magistrates and chief metropolitan magistrates should receive security escorts in addition to their assigned gunmen due to security concerns.
Shishir argued that the new security guidelines undermined the constitutional status of the judiciary.
He pointed out that under the revised framework, the chief justice was placed alongside the home secretary and range DIGs, despite the warrant of precedence placing the chief justice at the level just below the president, the prime minister/chief adviser.
He further noted that the guidelines equated High Court justices with secretaries or senior secretaries, Appellate Division justices with deputy inspector generals of police and metropolitan police commissioners, and placed district judges below deputy commissioners and district magistrates.
Shishir said that new security guidelines outlined escort privileges for top officials.
Under the newly issued security guidelines, only a select group of high-ranking officials, including the chief justice, Appellate Division judges, chief election commissioner, Anti-Corruption Commission chairman, cabinet secretary, principal secretary, home secretary, IGP, director general of the Rapid Action Battalion, additional IGPs, chiefs of the Special Branch and the Criminal Investigation Department, divisional commissioners, range DIGs and metropolitan police commissioner, will receive security escorts with assigned gunmen.
Among them, Appellate Division judges and the IGP or equivalent police officers will receive police escorts outside metropolitan areas, while the two will only be provided escorts in working places if deemed security risks.
The IGP and the metropolitan police commissioner will be entitled to escorts within their respective jurisdictions.
High Court judges, along with senior secretaries and secretaries of public administration, will receive security protocol only when visiting their home districts.
The other officials may receive security escorts based on an assessed security threat, but only upon submitting a formal request, according to the guidelines.
