Defend independence of judiciary unitedly

Dr Kamal Hossain yesterday urged the lawyers to get united and remain honest and ethical in order to uphold the independence and dignity of the judiciary and rule of law in the society.

"I do not accept that the rule of law has been damaged…many lawyers still serve with honesty and sincerity," he said.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The eminent jurist said this while speaking at a discussion meeting on "independence of judiciary and existing situation" organised by Bangladesh Democratic Lawyers Association at the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) auditorium in Dhaka yesterday evening.     

Kamal Hossain, a framer of the constitution, said as a lawyer he could serve many people from the Father of the Nation to the underprivileged. 

He said the so-called lawyers, who move for ensuring bail for the accused, only for huge amount of money, needed to be identified.

"The constitution, rule of law and justice are the motivation for the liberation war and their dignity should be upheld," said Dr Kamal.

Former chief justice Mahmudul Amin Chowdhury, the chief guest at the meeting, said the present chief justice was leading the judiciary to the right direction and the lawyers should help him.

He said retired judges' writing their announced judgments was not illegal while commenting on the chief justice's comment. "Perhaps, the chief justice had said against writing judgments after retirement, so that important points of the cases were not missing and order was not changed if those were written long after retirement," he said, adding that the chief justice should formulate a rule whether a judge could write verdicts after retirement or not.

Chief Justice SK Sinha, last month in a message had said, "Some judges make unusual delays in writing verdicts while others continue to write it even after retirements, which goes against the law and the constitution".

Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury, a retired judge of the HC, said the lawyers had to be united and wage movement if it was necessary for formulating a guideline for appointing the judges.

Jaglul Haider Africk presided over the meeting. Subrata Chowdhury, Shahdeen Malik, Zahidul Bari and SM Khasruzzaman, among others, spoke.