Further hearing on the contempt of court rule issued against the daily Janakantha editor and publisher, and its executive editor will be held under a larger bench of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division today.
Yesterday, the four-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha heard the attorney general and the defence counsel.
The chief justice said that the hearing would be held under a larger bench “for the sake of fairness, since it is a matter of independence of the judiciary and integrity.”
Defence lawyer Salauddin Dolon also filed a plea requesting that the hearing be held in a new bench without the chief justice. But the court scrapped the petition.
The apex court issued the contempt rule against the newspaper Editor and Publisher Atiqullah Khan Masud and its Executive Editor Swadesh Roy on July 29 centring an article that was published on July 16.
The article titled “Activity of SQ Chy’s family: Less chances to escape” said that the family members of the condemned war criminal had met with one of the judges dealing with the case of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. The contempt rule was issued after the apex court upheld the death penalty given by the war crimes tribunal.
During the hearing, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam read out the article written by Swadesh Roy which claiming that Salauddin’s family had been lobbying for influencing the verdict. The writer questioned the ethics of the apex court judges.
Mahbubey said that the journalists should be more careful and follow veterans like Sirajuddin Hossain and Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury.
After the hearing, the chief justice said: “The judiciary and the executive have separate secretariats whereas the chief justice does not have any. For this, I have to talk to the judges until midnight...We will not consider whatever the result is. The chief justice is a constitutional post. This is why we will hear the matter in a larger bench.”
The attorney general opposed the decision. At this, the chief justice said that the person who holds this post cannot act driven on emotion.
“This post is not like a wall made of glass that it will break into pieces if a brick is thrown...the nation should know that all the judges have sit together for the sake of integrity of the judiciary.”
The court also asked the defence lawyer to submit the report today.