The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in a recent verdict has said that it expects High Court Division judges, barring exceptions, will put their signatures on bail orders and other ad-interim orders maintaining the serial order of the hearing list and dates for delivering the orders.
The Appellate Division also asked High Court bench officers to send the signed orders to Dispatch Department following the serial order, and the Dispatch Department would deliver the orders to the parties concerned, and upload them serially to the Supreme Court website.
A five-judge bench, headed by chief justice Obaidul Hassan, issued the directives in the full text of a short verdict in a government鈥檚 appeal that challenged a High Court bail order that freed a murder accused from the jail in four to five hours after reaching the order to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Cumilla.
The Appellate Division delivered the short verdict on February 1, 2024, and uploaded its full text to the Supreme Court website on Thursday.
The government in its appeal said that the High Court on September 3, 2023, granted interim bail to Daudkandi upazila Awami League organising secretary Sohel Shikder in a case of killing upazila Juba League joint convener Jamal Hossain following intra-party conflict on April 30, 2023.
The government said that the High Court granted Sohel bail four months after his arrest in the murder case, without considering his role as a planner and conspirator of the killing.
The government said that the murder case accused also was freed on bail in four to five hours after getting the bail.聽聽聽聽
鈥楾he incident of freeing the accused in four to five hours after getting the bail has astonished us,鈥� said the Appellate Division.聽聽
It said that the defendants鈥� 鈥榰nethical鈥� and 鈥榚vil鈥� interference鈥� with the process was visible to complete the official proceedings of the bail order at a supersonic speed.
The SC registrar inquiry report, which was submitted to the Appellate Division on September 5, 2023, said that chief judicial magistrate of Cumilla Sohel Rana issued the release order of murder accused Sohel Shikder by confirming his bail order online, before receiving the order from the High Court.
The Appellate Division said that such an action of CJM Sohel Rana might create many perceptions in the minds of the people about the judges and asked Sohel to remain more cautious in future while performing his duty.聽聽聽聽
The Appellate Division asked the High Court registrar to take departmental action against several officers and employees, who showed over-enthusiasm over signing, dispatching and uploading the bail order as per the probe report.
The Appellate Division, however, upheld Sohel Shikder鈥檚 bail.