Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Mahbub Uddin Khokon has expressed strong anger over remarks by the attorney general following an incident in which the entire bench of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division left the courtroom. He called the remarks irrelevant and unwelcome. He also demanded that the judiciary be freed of corruption. The Supreme Court Bar leader gave the chief justice a one-month deadline to evict slums from the court premises.
Addressing the attorney general, the bar president said: “Who is he here? Who is the attorney general?” He said the attorney general’s own remarks were irrelevant, and that he had taken a position against lawyers. He made the comments to journalists at a press conference at the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Mahbub Uddin Khokon said: “As you know, lawyers at the Supreme Court have elected me 11 times. I am the one who should speak for lawyers, and for litigants. Does the attorney general have any role here? He was once secretary of the Supreme Court Bar — how can he take a position against lawyers?”
He further said many judges at the High Court still work in the interest of the Awami League. He said the chief justice must form a Supreme Judicial Council and take action against such judges — otherwise, lawyers would take to the streets. If the demand is not met within a month, he said, the next programme involving lawyers would be announced.
Barrister Khokon said everyone shares concerns about corruption in the judiciary. He said it was his duty to raise these issues with the chief justice. He said his demand to the chief justice was that the Appellate Division, the High Court Division and every court across the country be freed of corruption — within the next month.
He further said: “Why should there be slums at the country’s highest court?” Slums must be evicted from the Supreme Court within the next month, he said, and even a temporary shed should be built in the meantime to give lawyers a place to sit and a proper working environment. He said a plan must be made to evict the slums and build proper arrangements for lawyers to sit, along with chambers and a hall room for them.
The issue stirred nationwide controversy after an altercation between the chief justice and Supreme Court Bar Association president Mahbub Uddin Khokon last Tuesday led to the chief justice leaving the Appellate Division courtroom. In response, Attorney General Ruhul Kuddus Kajal said at a press conference that Khokon had claimed to have raised certain points with the chief justice for the welfare and interests of lawyers, but that no such remarks had actually been made during the case proceedings.