Govt gets another week to issue gazette on judges' service rules

The Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday gave the government another week to publish the gazette notification on the rules determining discipline and conduct of lower court judges. A six-member Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, passed the order following a petition filed by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, reports UNB. The apex court on July 2 gave the government two weeks for publishing the gazette notification mentioning it as the last chance. On May 29, the SC gave two more weeks to issue the gazette after providing another two-week's time on May 15. The same court on May 8 gave one more week to issue the gazette. On April 4, the SC extended time up to May 8 in this connection. On March 14, it extended the time by two weeks for issuing the gazette. Before that, the court, on February 27, gave the government two weeks to publish the gazette as it failed to do so in time. The court on February 5 ordered the authorities concerned to issue the gazette notification by February 12. On November 24 last year, it gave the government one week to publish the gazette notification. The lower judiciary was officially separated in November 2007 but the disciplinary rules for lower court judges are yet to be formulated. On December 2, 1999, the Supreme Court in the Masdar Hossain case issued a seven-point directive, including formulating separate disciplinary rules, for the lower court judges. The Law Ministry on May 7, 2015 sent a draft of the rules to the Supreme Court which is similar to the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985.