Pension of two judges
HC asks govt to explain
The High Court yesterday asked the authorities concerned to explain in two weeks why they should not be directed to pay pensions to two retired Supreme Court (SC) judges.
Justice Mohammed Mumtaz Uddin Ahmed of the Appellate Division retired on December 31 last year and Justice Md Abdul Hye of High Court (HC) Division retired on December 14 the same year.
The two judges, who were not confirmed like nine others during the regime of the BNP-led four-party government despite the chief justice's positive recommendations, were reappointed as regular HC judge on March 24, 2009, as per an SC verdict. Justice Mumtaz was promoted to the Appellate Division on May 16 last year.
In response to two separate writ petitions filed by the retired judges, the HC yesterday issued two separate rules upon the government and the SC authorities to explain why they should not be directed to take effective steps to pay the pension of the petitioners.
Secretaries to the ministries of law and finance and SC registrar have been made respondents to the rule.
The HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim also fixed February 17 for holding hearing on the rules.
Petitioners' counsel Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star that his clients had submitted two separate applications to the chief justice on different days of January this year to take necessary steps so that the government authorities could pay their pensions.
But the retired judges did not receive any reply from the office of the chief justice, he said.
Manzill said it was apprehended that the authorities were not paying pension to the retired judges on the ground that the tenure of their continuous service did not complete seven years which is necessary for payment of their pension as per provision of Supreme Court (Leave, Remuneration and Pension) Ordinance 1982.
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