High Court Division鈥檚 justice Syed Refaat Ahmed was appointed as chief justice of Bangladesh on Saturday following the resignation of chief justice Obaidul Hassan and five other judges of the Appellate Division amid student protests and allegations of an attempted judicial coup.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin made the appointment, exercising his power under Article 95(1) of the constitution, according to a gazette notification issued by law secretary Md Golam Sarwar on Saturday.
The notification said that the appointment of Syed Refaat Ahmed, who will be the 25th chief justice of the country, would come into effect after taking the oath.
Born on December 28, 1958, new chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed was appointed as an additional HC judge on April 27, 2003, and his appointment was confirmed on April 27, 2005.
Earlier in the day, chief justice Obaidul Hassan and five other judges of the Appellate Division, M Enayetur Rahim, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique, Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim, Justice Md Shahinur Islam, and Justice Kashefa Hussain, submitted their resignations to the president.
Law secretary Golam Sarwar, in separate notifications, said that the president had accepted the resignation of the chief justice and five other judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Outgoing chief justice Obaidul Hassan was supposed to hold the office until January 2026 after he sworn in as the 24th chief justice on September 26, 2023.听
The resignation of the chief justice and other judges of the appellate division came following a protest from students, who issued an ultimatum to them to resign by 1:00pm.
Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, issued the ultimatum in the morning, asking the CJ and other judges of the Appellate Division to leave their posts within 1:00pm amid a report of an attempted full court meeting of the Supreme Court, which was later cancelled.
Accusing the chief justice of being involved in 鈥榝ascism and various misdeeds,鈥� Abdul Hannan Masud, another movement coordinator, claimed in a statement in the morning that he had called a full court meeting of the Supreme Court without any discussion with the government.
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鈥楢ny kind of conspiracy by defeated forces will not be tolerated. Lawyers have already gathered to protest,鈥� he said.
鈥榃e had earlier asked the chief justice to resign. If they take a stand against the students and people and provoke them, they will have to face terrible consequences,鈥� he said.
Hundreds of students moved to the Supreme Court premises following the announcement and chanted slogans against the judges.
鈥楾hey must all step down. These people have served Hasina for 15 years. They will not be allowed to do this,鈥� Sabit Hasan, a student of Notre Dame College Dhaka, told 抖阴精品 while agitating against the judges on Supreme Court premises.
Many lawyers from the Supreme Court also joined the students in protest.
Army personnel were deployed in the main building, annexe building, and other areas around the Supreme Court to avoid any untoward situation involving the protest.
The demand for the resignation of the chief justice and other judges came to the fore after long-time ruler Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday and fled to India amid an unprecedented student-led mass uprising.听
Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus took the oath as chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh along with 13 other advisers on Thursday, four days after Hasina resigned.