HC gets 23 new judges

Judge appointment needs new laws: SCBA president

FE REPORT | Published: October 10, 2024 00:41:16

Newly-appointed 23 additional judges to the High Court (HC) Division of the Supreme Court (SC) took oath on Wednesday. Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed administered the oath of the judges at the judges' lounge in the SC at 11:00 am.
On Tuesday night, President Mohammed Shahabuddin made the appointments in line with Article 98 of the constitution. Law Ministry Secretary Md Golam Rabbani issued a notification to this effect saying that the appointment will come into effect from their oath.
The newly-appointed HC judges are: Md Golam Martuza Mazumder, Syed Enayet Hossain, Md Mansur Alam, Syed Zaheed Mansur, KM Rasheduzzaman Raja, Md Jabid Hossain, Mubina Asaf, Kazi Waliul Islam, Aynun Nahar Siddiqua, Md Abdul Mannan, Tamanna Rahman, and Md Shafiul Alam Mahmud.
The list also included the names of Md Hamidur Rahman, Nasreen Akhtar, Sathika Hossain, Syed Mohammad Tajrul Hossain, Md Taufique Inam, Yusuf Abdullah Sumon, Sheikh Tahsin Ali, Faiz Ahmed, Md Sagir Hossain, Shikder Mahmudur Razi and Debashish Roy Chowdhury.
Among the newly appointed judges, six were retired senior district judges, one was existing senior district judge, seven were deputy attorney generals, and nine were SC lawyers.
This is first judge appointment in the HC division of the SC after the fall of the former authoritarian regime.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokan expressed his dissatisfaction over the standard of the appointment of the newly made judges.
"We were feeling the need of an appointment of judges in the HC, especially after the regime change. We hoped that government will appoint judges after enacting a law or policy or ordinance," he said.
Without enacting any law, appointment of the judges becomes the same as before. We saw this kind of practice earlier. People of choices have been appointed. It doesn't look good, he added.