90pc people trust judiciary: CJ [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

90pc people trust judiciary: CJ

Local May 25, 2017

Chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Wednesday said that the judiciary was many times better than any other institutions of the country and over 90 per cent people had faith in the judiciary.
He made the comments during the fifth day’s hearing on government appeal against a High Court verdict that had declared illegal the
16th amendment to the constitution that restored parliament’s power to remove Supreme Court judges.
All the seven Appellate Division judges took part in the hearing.
At the beginning of the day’s hearing, attorney general Mahbubey Alam general reiterated his previous argument that the nation went back to the original constitution framed in 1972 through the 16th amendment.
‘We have to consider incapability and dishonesty of a few judges,’ he said.
At this point, Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah wanted to know whether the judiciary would not flourish and whether there would be no judicial review.
The attorney general said that the 15th amendment to the constitution was passed based on the proposal tabled by the then ‘technocrat law minister’, also a senior Supreme Court lawyer, without touching the provisions of Supreme Judicial Council for the investigation into allegations of misconduct and incapacity of the Supreme Court judges to favour them.
The chief justice asked why the provision for technocrat minister was not scrapped.
Asking the attorney general to look at the civilised countries on the issues of democracy, rule of law, human rights and basic rights, he said that the Indian Supreme Court scrapped a law that cancelled collegium system to appoint judges but the parliament said nothing about it.
He also mentioned that the Pakistan Supreme Court ordered investigation against the prime minister and parliament and politicians had accepted it.
The attorney general said that a public hearing might be arranged with justice seekers to know what was happening in the courts.
‘I don’t know what happened earlier. But now I can proudly say that over 90 per cent people have faith in the judiciary now,’ said the chief justice.
The attorney general argued that the sixteenth amendment was brought to go back to the original constitution as the provision for Supreme Judicial Council, made during the military rule, was a shame in the history of the constitution.
Writ petitioners’ lawyer Monzil Murshid argued that the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took away parliament’s power to remove Supreme Court judges through the fourth amendment in 1975.
It was the decision of the founding president of the country that the power to remove the judges should not be vested in the parliament, he contended.
He argued that, prior to the 15th amendment, a high powered committee discussed with different stakeholders and the prime minister, in her speech, then did not accept the proposal for cancelling the Supreme Judicial Council.
Monzill argued that the independent judiciary was a basic structure of the constitution that was hit by the 16th amendment.
He argued that the Supreme Court could cancel any law having mala fide intention.
Later, senior Supreme Court lawyer M Amir-Ul Islam began to make his arguments as an amicus curie, lawyer engaged by the court for assistance.
His arguments remained incomplete when the hearing was adjourned until this morning.