The High Court cleared ATM Shamsul Huda of contempt of court for allegedly criticising the judiciary yesterday as The Daily Star sought the unconditional apology of the court for misquoting the former chief election commissioner in a news report last month.
In an affidavit submitted to the bench yesterday, the newspaper said: “Due to an error and inadvertent mistake in reproducing the statements of ATM Shamsul Huda, The Daily Star prays for an unconditional apology before the High Court.”
However, the paper’s lawyer, Tanjib-ul Alam, claimed that the Star did not apologise, but informed the court that the paper had already apologised publicly for the error on May 29.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Tanjib said: “The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain ordered the paper to authenticate the news published on May 18. After examining the item, the paper found that it had committed an error, and for that, it apologised publicly, in writing, in the paper. I informed the court about it. As the court did not issue a contempt rule against the paper, it did not apologise.”
In response to the Star’s affidavit, Justice Altaf Hossain said the report had created a bad impression about the former CEC and his image had suffered because of it.
In the report published on May 18, the paper quoted Huda as saying, “All constitutional bodies, including the Election Commission and the Public Service Commission, as well as the judiciary have been politicised, and incompetent people are getting important posts there...the constitutional bodies have to be freed from politicisation. Otherwise, the country will go backwards.”
The High Court on May 19 issued a rule seeking an explanation from Huda as to why he should not be charged with contempt of court for maligning the dignity of the judiciary. It gave Huda two weeks to reply.
In an item published last Thursday under the heading, “We apologise,” the Star said: “We sincerely regret this error and apologise for any damage caused to the image of the judiciary.”
The paper said due to an error in reporting Huda’s statement, which was made in Bangla, the impression was conveyed that incompetent people were being appointed to the judiciary, which is not what the ex-CEC had meant to say.
When the former CEC appeared in court yesterday, Justice Reza asked the lawyers to make room for him to sit.
Dr Kamal Hossain, Huda’s lawyer, told the Dhaka Tribune that the ex-CEC did not seek an apology, but the Star apologised as it had committed an error.
“I submitted an affidavit, a (audio) recording and transcription of the statement made by Huda,” Dr Kamal said.
The affidavit submitted on Huda’s behalf said: “He never remotely had the intention to derogate the respect and confidence that is accorded to the higher judiciary. We can express sincere sorrow that an expression may have been conveyed from his alleged reported statement.”
