The High Court has dubbed three Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) executive magistrates, including Sarwoer Alam, as incompetent for conducting trials of 121 children in mobile courts out of law.
The bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Mahmud Hassan Talukder came up with the term on Wednesday while delivering a verdict over the illegal conviction of the children by the executive magistrates.
Two other magistrates are -- Md Aktaruzzaman and Nizam Uddin Ahmed.
In its verdict, the bench scrapped charges brought against the 121 children by the mobile courts.
The court, however, did not pass any order on a supplementary petition filed by Barrister Abdul Halim and Advocate Ishrat Hasan, seeking reducing magistracy power of the three.
The court stated: "The mobile court recorded confessional statements of 23 children out of 121 in 32 minutes. Considering the confessional statement procedures and the allotted time given for recording each statement, it is clear that the three magistrates have no idea about the law. Also they have no respect for the rule of law."
Executive magistrates are playing both the role of judge and prosecutor, which completely contradicts Articles 33 and 35 of the constitution and rule of law, the court observed.
On October 31, 2019, the High Court passed a suo moto order and asked the authorities concerned to immediately release the convicts, who were below the age of 12 years, from Gazipur, Tongi, and Jessore juvenile development centres.
It also gave six months to the authorities to release the convicts aged between 13 and 18 years.
The court also ordered that those above 12 years be granted bail for six months.
