The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has fixed October 20 this year for hearing the review petition filed challenging its earlier verdict that upheld the cancellation of the 16th Constitutional amendment brought to restore parliament’s power to remove judges for incapacity or misconduct.
Justice M Enayetur Rahim, judge of the Chamber Court of the Appellate Division, has fixed the date recently. The case will be heard in the regular bench of the apex court.
The government on December 24 in 2017 filed a petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking a review of its judgement that upheld the High Court verdict scrapping the 16th amendment to the Constitution.
The Attorney General’s office submitted the 908-page review petition containing 94 grounds on which the apex court may consider the prayer. In a briefing, the then Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said, “We sought scrapping of irrelevant observations of the verdict.”
Since the review petition has not been finalised yet, a vacuum is prevailing in the procedure of removing Supreme Court judges and election commissioners for their misconduct. Allegations raised against some of the High Court judges are also pending for years. However, legal experts say, the Supreme Judicial Council is still in place.
Lawyer Manzill Murshid who appeared in this case for the writ petitioners said, “Since the Appellate Division upheld the judgement and as the apex court didn’t pass any stay order on the judgement, there is no doubt that the Supreme Judicial Council is still in place.”
The 16th amendment, made on September 17 in 2014, had abolished the Chief Justice-led Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and restored parliament’s power to remove the judges. But it was challenged with the HC on November 5 in 2014, through a writ petition filed by nine SC lawyers.
The High Court issued a rule on the amendment on November 9 in 2014. After the hearing, the HC declared the amendment illegal based on the view of the majority on May 5 in 2016. Later, the government appealed against the HC verdict.
The Appellate Division started hearing the case on May 8 in 2017 in the full bench led by the then Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha. The bench heard speeches from 10 amici curiae (friends of the court) on the case. Nine of them gave their opinion to scrap the 16th amendment to the Constitution.
Finally, the Appellate Division delivered the verdict on July 3 in 2017, rejecting the appeal and upholding the HC verdict and released the full text of the verdict on August 1 in 2017.
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