SCBA wants review of guidelines given by SC

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) yesterday moved before the SC chamber judge a review petition filed against its guidelines for the High Court in granting anticipatory bail to people.
Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, chamber judge of the apex court, accepted the petition and fixed today for its hearing, SCBA Secretary AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon told The Daily Star.
The SCBA on June 18 last year filed the petition with the SC, seeking a review of its guidelines in dealing with the anticipatory bail petitions.
In the petition, SCBA President Khandker Mahbub Hossain and its secretary urged the Appellate Division to cancel some of the guidelines, so that the HC can give anticipatory bail to people in false and politically motivated cases.
They said the HC now expressed reluctance to hear anticipatory bail applications following the SC verdict, and as a result, innocent litigants were being victim of police harassment.
On February 24 last year, the SC issued some guidelines in a verdict and expressed disappointment at an HC bench for "failure to follow its guidelines" in giving anticipatory bail to BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain in a money laundering case.
The apex court said the HC had to scrutinise the facts in the FIR with "expected diligence", and would not grant anticipatory bail "where the allegations are of heinous nature".
If satisfied in all respects, the HC will dispose of the anticipatory bail applications instantly without issuing any rule, and will not grant such type of bail to an accused for more than four weeks, the judgment said.
The HC judges will mention the reasons for granting anticipatory bail to an accused and "shall give reasons for their satisfaction on this unravelling point," the Appellate Division said.