No news of CJ Sinha’s return as his leave ends on Friday

There is still no word on Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha's return from abroad even though his official period of leave ends on Friday. The chief justice left Dhaka for Australia on October 13 after his request to be absent from office until November 10 was approved by President Abdul Hamid. Up to the point of this report being filed, however, no information about his return had been disclosed by any authority. Under the current circumstances, the question arises: Will the chief justice return to Bangladesh? Calling the situation “extraordinary”, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said whatever the chief justice plans to do now, it will make little difference. Asked about the possibility of the chief justice extending his leave, the attorney general said: “Informing the president about leave extension is the official approach. However, the chief justice cannot be treated like any other official. “Other justices have decided not to share the bench with him, so he has effectively become a burden for the judiciary,” he told Bangla Tribune. The attorney general also made it clear that he did not know when the chief justice would return home. Law Minister Anisul Huq could not be reached for a comment over the matter. However, Supreme Court Bar Association President Joynal Abedin told the Bangla Tribune that only the chief justice knew when he would return home. “Surendra Kumar Sinha will remain the chief justice of Bangladesh until the end of his tenure, even if his leave ends and he plans to stay abroad. The acting chief justice will continue to shoulder his responsibilities in his absence,” Joynal said. Earlier this year, tension started brewing between Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and the government when he criticised the Ministry of Law's delay in publishing a gazette notification on rules determining the code of conduct for lower court judges. The Supreme Court on July 3 unanimously declared the 16th Amendment to the constitution illegal, stripping parliament of the power to impeach higher court judges. Things took a turn for the worse as the chief justice faced a barrage of criticism, both professional and personal, from different quarters of the government and the prime minister herself, following the 16th Amendment verdict. Later, he took a leave of absence and left Dhaka for Australia on October 13. At the airport, he told reporters that he was not physically ill, completely contradicting a government narrative that he was taking one month of leave on health grounds. The chief justice added that he was “quite embarrassed” about how a specific political quarter, including some ministers and the prime minister herself, had criticised him over one of his rulings. Chief Justice Sinha was referring to the full verdict in the 16th Amendment to the constitution case. Surendra Kumar Sinha was appointed as the chief justice on January 17, 2015, and his tenure will end on January 21, 2018.This article was first published on Bangla Tribune