Draft on lower court judges' conduct rule not accepted

Staff Correspondent: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) did not accept the draft of the gazette notification on the disciplinary and conduct rules for lower court judges, which was submitted to the chief justice on July 27.

Pointing at the government, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha told the court that a meeting can be held over the issue at any time ranging from 2:00pm on Tuesday to 12:00am on Thursday.

The chief justice convened the meeting where all the Appellate Division bench judges will be present.

He also asked the law minister, attorney general and any expert in this regard to attend the meeting in favour of the government.

A six-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha convened the meeting during the hearing in this regard on Sunday morning.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on July 23 extended one week timeframe for the government to publish a gazette notification on the disciplinary and conduct rules for lower court judges and fixed next Sunday for the order on the issue.

Earlier, the government sought time in several phases to publish a gazette notification in this regard.

On November 7 last year, the Supreme Court ordered the government to issue a gazette notification on the disciplinary and conduct rules for lower court judges by 24 November.

On December 2 in 1999, the Supreme Court in the Masdar Hossain case issued a 12-point directive, including formulating separate disciplinary rules for the lower court judges.

risingbd/Dhaka/July 30, 2017/Mehedi/Amirul