The chief justice has expressed hopes that retired Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik will return all files related to judgements he delivered but did not write down before retiring.
This comes hours after Justice Shamsuddin alleged that the judgements and orders he had written down after retirement were not received.
In a press conference on the Supreme Court premises earlier in the day, Justice Shamsuddin, who retired four months ago, claimed that had sent a letter to Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, requesting him to receive the written documents.
He told media that he had handwritten some 15 judgements and 70 order, which were pending when he went into retirement.
“I went to presiding judge Justice Md Abdul Wahab Mia, as I was a member of the bench, to handover the judgments and orders but it was not received ... He refused.”
Justice Shamsuddin claimed that Justice Wahab refused to receive the documents citing an instruction by the chief justice.
Recently, the chief justice criticised justices’ habit of writing down judgements and orders, which were delivered before going into retirement. He said this practice was a violation of the country’s constitution.
Taking part in the debate that arose soon after, Law Minister Anisul Huq said in parliament that writing down delivered verdicts after retirement was not unconstitutional and he did not see any legal problems with such practice.
In response to the claims Justice Shamsuddin made at the media conference, the Supreme Court yesterday issued a press release.
The release, signed by Supreme Court acting registrar Abu Sayed Dilzar Hossain, said that the chief justice had hoped that Justice Shamsuddin would not talk to the media again before handing over all files of case judgements to the court authorities.
Terming the press conference during office hours at the court premises “unprecedented,” the release said the chief justice came to know about it through electronic media.
The chief justice also hoped that judges would refrain from doing any such thing for the sake of the court’s sanctity and dignity.
The Supreme Court release also said that Justice Wahab had told the chief justice that he had not received any written judgements and orders from Justice Shamsuddin.
Earlier, Justice Shamsuddin told reporters that he had wrote to the chief justice to accept all the judgements and order he had written down after retiring.
“All my staff members were withdrawn. So, one of the my men took the letter to the chief justice on Thursday evening. I do not think he received it because it was really late. So, I sent it again this morning,” the retired justice said.
After the chief justice slammed his colleague for their habit of writing down judgements after retirement, BNP leaders then came out in support and claimed that the verdict which led to the scrapping of the caretaker government system was also “illegal.”
But Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said Chief Justice Sinha made the remarks to press for justice, not because he believed that writing verdicts after they were announced was illegal.
Just like is successor, for law minister Shafique Ahmed also said that he did not see anything wrong with the practice that is common to many other countries in the world as well.
