THE call of the Supreme Court Bar Association for an immediate removal of the ‘controversial’ High Court judges appointed during the 15 years’ rule of the Awami League, which was overthrown on August 5 amidst a student-mass uprising, is dubious. The association’s president AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, who was elected member of parliament for the Noakhali 1 constituency from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the 2008 national elections, at a press conference titled ‘Reforms of the Judiciary and Supreme Court Lawyers’ Observations’ has demanded the removal of the judges who are alleged to have conducted judicial proceedings with a political bias over the past decade and a half and associated with what he has called a syndicate of lawyers inclined to the Awami League government. Although he has said that there are many honest judges who were appointed during the Awami League’s tenure, such a blanket call is a cause of concern as it might well be construed as a call not only for the removal of judges appointed during the Awami League regime but also for the inclusion of people of his partisan choice. His statement that the judges who are alleged to have remanded in custody and punished politicians in the opposition under the Awami League regime should be transferred only corroborates this notion.
His call for the authorities to listen in on the telephonic conversations of the law minister of the Awami League regime with judicial officers also sounds odious. Such actions need sanctions of the court of law and such actions would, otherwise, be illegal and a punishable offence. While there could be a review of the appointment of judges during the Awami League regime especially over irregularities and corruption, a blanket action against all judges in the High Court would be illogical, high-handed and, therefore, ludicrous. There could be many among the judges appointed during the Awami League regime who are brilliant and true to the profession. But the call of the association for set measures to remove judges and their appointment certainly holds merit. The enactment of a law, as laid out in the constitution, to set out qualifications for the appointment of judges to the High Court so that such appointment should not create any controversy in the future and the appointment of people with integrity as judges to the High Court keeping to the set of qualifications set out in the law would improve both justice delivery system and justice dispensation. His call for the establishment of a Supreme Court secretariat to free the lower judiciary of the influence of the executive is also important. Legal experts have always blamed successive governments, presided over mostly by the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, for keeping the judiciary subservient to the executive.
General expectations were that problems in the judiciary would be resolved after its November 2007 independence from the executive. But, that has not happened. The appointment of judges could, therefore, be reviewed and both their appointment and removal should be proceduralised.