Verdict on ‘SC letter to ACC’ Tuesday


FE Team | Published: November 13, 2017 14:16:07 | Updated: November 14, 2017 17:02:49


Verdict on ‘SC letter to ACC’ Tuesday

The High Court will deliver its verdict on Tuesday on the legality of a letter sent by the top court to the anti-graft body asking it to halt probe into a graft allegation against retired judge Joynal Abedin.

The case has been put on the day’s cause list of a division bench comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim that concluded hearing about the issue on November 1.

Arunava Chakraborty, the then additional registrar of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, sent a letter to the ACC on March 28 asking it to halt the probe against the judge.

ACC officials said they got the letter after initiating an investigation into the graft allegation against Justice Joynal Abedin.

On July 18, 2010, the ACC issued a notice to former Justice Joynal Abedin over a probe into the allegation against him.

It launched the investigation after Awami League assumed power through the polls held during the tenure of last caretaker regime led by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed.

According to the Supreme Court letter, Justice Joynal was a judge of the High Court Division and the Appellate Division. During his long judicial career, he delivered judgments in many serious cases.

It says he judge awarded death sentence to many offenders in murder cases. Following his orders, many condemned prisoners were hanged.

If the ACC takes any step against an apex-court judge, all the verdicts and decisions passed by him will be put on question, says the SC.

It will not be appropriate on the part of the anti-graft watchdog to initiate any proceedings against Justice Joynal, the SC letter opines.

As reported by UNB, quoting Article 111 of the Constitution, the top court letter says all the authorities concerned are bound to comply with the orders of the apex court.

As lawyer Md Badiuzzaman Tarafdar drew the High Court’s attention to the letter, it issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why the letter shall not be illegal.

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