Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has been appointed the 21st chief justice of the country, with President Abdul Hamid making the appointment as per article 95(1) of the constitution.
The Law Ministry issued a gazette notification yesterday regarding the appointment, Law Minister Anisul Haq said. Justice Sinha’s appointment will come into effect from the day he takes oath, while incumbent Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain is set to retire on January 16.
Justice Sinha’s appointment comes only a few months after he drew flak by revealing his role and affiliation with the anti-liberation force during the Liberation War.
On September 10 last year, during the hearing in war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzaman’s appeal case, presiding judge of the four-member Appellate Division bench SK Sinha said he had been a member of the infamous Peace Committee in 1971.
During the proceedings, Justice Sinha said: “It may happen. There was a situation during the war when in every family if one was an Awami League supporter, another was pro-Pakistani. I myself was a member of the Peace Committee.
“I myself worked for the Pakistani army, but at night I passed down information to the freedom fighters,” he added.
Born in 1951, Justice Sinha hails from Tilokpur village of Alinagor union at Moulvibazar. After obtaining his LLB degree, he enrolled as an advocate of the Sylhet District Court in 1974.
He enrolled as an advocate of the High Court Division in 1978 and the Appellate Division of Supreme Court in 1990. He was elevated as judge of the High Court Division in 1999 and as judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 2009.
Justice Sinha sat on the Appellate Division bench that heard the 13th amendment appeal and scrapped the provision for caretaker government to oversee national elections. He was also part of the bench that heard the 2009 appeals in the Bangabandhu murder case and has been an appeals judge in the on-going war crimes trials.
He will serve just over three years as the chief justice with his retirement due in early 2018.