SJC verifying info of some HC judges accused of misconduct

A task of verifying the information about some judges of the High Court (HC) Division of the Supreme Court (SC) is underway in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), according to the SC sources.

The authority of the Supreme Judicial Council has been restored in the Constitution to remove SC judges for their incapacity or misconduct, after the sixteenth amendment verdict announced on October 20 this year.

However, the council has not sent yet any allegation against any HC judge to the President.

A total of 15 HC judges have been relieved from the judicial activities.

Three HC judges - Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury, Justice AKM Zahirul Hoque and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque - were relieved of their judicial duties on August 22, 2019 after a probe into allegations of professional misconduct against them was initiated. But no decision has been taken about them for a long time.

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina government, 12 more HC Division judges were relieved from the judicial activities.

For a long time, a vacuum was prevailing in the procedure of removing SC judges, election commissioners and officials of other equivalent posts for their misconduct.

But the announcement of the 16th amendment verdict has resolved the crisis.

SJC is constituted comprising the Chief Justice and next two senior most judges of the Appellate Division of the SC, as per the constitution before the 16th amendment.

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