Lawyers term admn officials' meeting contempt of court

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The Dhaka Bar Association and Dhaka Metropolitan Bar Association have termed the meeting of the administrative cadre officials at the Biam auditorium in the city as tantamount to contempt of court, reports bdnews24.com.
Dhaka Bar Association president Adv Fakir Delwar Hossain and general secretary Adv Golam Mostafa Khan, in a joint statement to the press Sunday afternoon, said: "The holding of the meeting by the administrative officials and speaking against the verdict of the court amounted to contempt of court."
They said if there was intervention on separation of the judiciary, judges would not be able to work independently to ensure justice.
Dhaka Metropolitan Bar Association president Adv Shah Iliyas Ratan in a separate statement Sunday afternoon, said: "The lawyers' community will not tolerate any conspiracy against separation of judiciary from the executive branch."
The statement by lawyers was released in response to a demand made Sunday by executive branch officials for halting separation of the judiciary.
The demand was made at a seminar on "Independence of the judiciary for good governance" held by the Bangladesh Institute of Administrative Management, and was backed by a threat of strike action by administrative officials.
Meanwhile, the vice president of the Judicial Service Association and registrar of the Supreme Court Iktedar Ahmed said the judiciary was being separated from the executive branch due to constitutional obligation.
Speaking at a press conference at his office Sunday afternoon, Iktedar Ahmed claimed there was no clash between the Supreme Court and executive branch officials.
He said, "The matter of separation of the judiciary is not our issue, it is the people's demand. If anybody opposes it they are only negligible in number."
Iktedar Ahmed said, "The judges are not inimical to anybody. The Supreme Court and administrative officials are not in a 'stand-off' on the separation of the judiciary."
Replying to a question, he said the Supreme Court was very optimistic that the judiciary would become separate from the executive branch on November 1.