The Appellate Division of Supreme Court has stayed a High Court order that asked Barrister Syed Sayedul Haque Sumon and Advocate Ishrat Hassan to deposit Tk100 each in the Supreme Court as they wasted High Court's time by filing a writ.
The Supreme Court also stayed a High Court verdict allowing a lawyer to practice in court without any enrolment certificate.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order on Wednesday after hearing an appeal in this regard.
Aneek R Haque accompanied by Barrister Ruhul Kuddus Kajal stood for the two lawyers while Barrister M Amir-ul Islam and Tania Amir opposed the appeal.
On November 21, 2019, Barrister Syed Sayedul Haque Sumon and Advocate Ishrat Hassan had initially filed a writ against a High Court order allowing the enlistment of Jumman Siddique, who is also the son of a High Court judge, although he failed the enrolment examination.
Then on December 18 last year, the High Court stayed the gazette notification on Jumman’s enlistment.
The bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir also issued a rule asking the government to explain why the publication of the gazette notification should not be declared illegal.
However, due to the retirement of Justice Tariq Ul Hakim the proceedings lagged behind and the gazette was later reinstated allowing Jumman Siddique to practice.
Following this debacle, Barrister Syed Sayedul Haque Sumon and Advocate Ishrat Hassan had made a few Facebook posts not mentioning the court directly but one of them shared a news regarding the High Court order and another posted Shukumar Ray’s poem “Bichar.”
Then on November 8 this year, the High Court issued a contempt of court rule against them, where it asked them to explain why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for their comments over Facebook.
The HC bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Mohammad Ullah came up with the court of contempt rule and fined the two lawyers after hearing the writ.
Later, the lawyers filed an appeal with the Supreme Court seeking a stay order on the High Court verdict.