Law minister: Don’t know anything about Chief Justice’s resignation

Law Minister Anisul Huq has said he has heard nothing about Chief Justice SK Sinha’s resignation. Several private TV channels on Saturday reported that Sinha had sent his resignation letter to the president. “I still do not know anything about it,” Huq told the Bangla Tribune on early Saturday. Sinha left Dhaka on a month-long leave on October 13, amid a row with the government over the 16th amendment verdict that stripped Parliament of its power to remove apex court judges. The observations he made in the verdict stirred controversy. Sinha had also criticised the Law Ministry for delaying publication of a gazette on the discipline and conduct of the lower court judges. When he applied for leave, the law minister had claimed that the chief justice was sick. But before flying to Australia last month, Sinha contradicted the claim, saying he was not ill. The chief justice said 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 – the 16th Amendment verdict. A day later, five judges of the Appellate Division announced their unwillingness to continue working with him because of “11 gross allegations including money laundering, financial scam, corruptions, moral degradation against him.” Sinha’s leave ended on Friday. Surendra Kumar Sinha was appointed as the first non-Muslim chief justice in Muslim majority Bangladesh on January 17, 2015. His tenure will end on January 31 next year.This article was first published on Bangla Tribune