A group of Supreme Court lawyers on Monday submitted a ‘charter of demands’ to Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, demanding the resignation of judges accused of ‘political bias and corruption’ during the Awami League regime.
Led by lawyers Mohammad Mohsen Rashid and Syed Mamun Mahbub, the lawyers presented the charter following a human chain in front of the Supreme Court Bar Association building, under the banner of ‘Bangladesh Supreme Court Lawyers’.
Lawyer Sarwar Hossain, a member of the delegation that met with the chief justice, said that the Chief Justice acknowledged the concerns and assured them that he would look into the demands.
Addressing the human chain, Mohsen Rashid said, ‘At least 30 judges must step down from this court.’
He blamed the government for their failure to remove the ‘biased judges’ even after the fall of Sheikh Hasina and her fleeing to India amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5.
Mohsen criticised the interim government’s law adviser Asif Nazrul for not taking any actions in this connection.
‘If you (law adviser) don’t cleanse this court within two or three days, we will take matters into our own hands, though we aim to avoid setting a negative precedent by using force,’ he warned.
The SC lawyer urged the judges, whom the lawyers termed ‘biased judges’, to resign voluntarily and warned, ‘If you don’t step down, we will compel you to do so, regardless of whether it sets a good or bad example.’
Senior lawyer Shahdeen Malik told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that the Constitution outlined a formal process for removing sitting Supreme Court judges.
He said that forcing judges to resign through public pressure amounted to ‘mob justice.’
‘If this practice continues, the Supreme Court will lose its integrity within the next 20 years,’ Shahdeen cautioned.
He further explained that such actions could erode judicial independence, as judges might fear issuing rulings that could provoke a backlash.
Shahdeen emphasised that any allegations against a Supreme Court judge should be presented to the President, who would forward them to the Chief Justice for investigation by the Supreme Judicial Council. ‘This is the constitutional process,’ he said.
Pro-BNP lawyer Ruhul Quddus Kazal supported the protest, stating that it was time to cleanse the judiciary after the fall of Sheikh Hasina.
He claimed that many judges were appointed based on ‘political loyalty’ rather than ‘merit’ during the Hasina regime.
