SC rejects govt’s draft of judges’ code of conduct

The Appellate Division has rejected the government's draft of a gazette outlining the code of conduct for lower court judges. On Sunday, a six-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice SK Sinha fixed August 6 for further hearing on the matter and invited the government to a dialogue on the code. “Let us sit down to discuss this matter. The meeting can be held any time between Sunday 2pm to Thursday 12pm,” the court said in the hearing. The Chief Justice said all Appellate Division judges would be present at that meeting and the law minister, the attorney general and other experts can be present from the state's side. Law Minister Anisul Huq presented the draft code of conduct to the Chief Justice on July 27. He had told reporters that after the Chief Justice sees the draft, it will be sent to the president to be finalised. Before that, Huq held a closed-door meeting with Chief Justice Sinha on July 20. On December 2, 1999, during a hearing of the Masdar Hossain case, the Supreme Court issued a seven-point directive, including formulation of separate disciplinary rules, for the lower court judges. The Ministry of Law submitted the draft of the code of conduct to the Supreme Court on May 7, 2015. The court sent the draft back to the ministry with some modifications and asked the government to finalise the code and issue a gazette notification. Law Minister Anisul Huq speaks at a programme in Jessore on July 30, 2017 Dhaka Tribune

No war between judiciary and executive

While addressing a programme in Jessore, Law Minister Anisul Huq said: “There is no war between the judiciary and the executive.” Anisul said: “He [chief justice] voiced his concerns for the betterment of the judiciary. The solvable problems will definitely be solved. In response to Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha's call for holding talks to finalise service rules and conduct for lower court judges, Law Minister Anisul Huq on Sunday said he is already engaged in discussions on this issue. The law minister's response came when he was talking to newsmen after attending a view exchange meeting with district bar association leaders in Jessore, reports Md Tauhid-Uz-Zaman, Dhaka Tribune's Jessore correspondent. Regarding the draft of service rules and conduct, the law minister said: "When I went to hand him [Chief Justice] the draft, I told the Chief Justice that we are giving this draft to you [court] to see whether anything is missing in it or if you want to add anything more. If you let us know your suggestions, we will try to amend it." "We will try to make the service rules and conduct for lower court judges upholding Section 116 of the constitution," he added.