Review hearing in 16th amendment case on Aug 10

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has fixed August 10 this year for hearing the review petition filed challenging its earlier verdict that upheld the cancellation of the 16th Constitutional amendment brought to restore parliament's power to remove judges for incapacity or misconduct.

An Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique on Thursday set the date, said Attorney General AM Amin Uddin. The full bench of the Appellate Division will hold hearing on the petition.

The government on December 24 in 2017 filed the petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking review of its judgement that upheld the High Court verdict scrapping the 16th amendment to the Constitution.

The Attorney General's office submitted the 908-page review petition containing 94 grounds on which the apex court may consider the prayer. In a briefing, the then Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said, "We sought scrapping of irrelevant observations of the verdict."

Since the review petition has not been finalized yet, a vacuum is prevailing in the procedure of removing Supreme Court judges and election commissioners for their misconduct. Allegations raised against some of the High Court judges are also pending for years. However, legal experts say, the Supreme Judicial Council is still in place.