A lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court on Wednesday filed a contempt of court petition against three former chief justices and four other former judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The seven accused are former chief justices Syed Mahmud Hossain, Hasan Foez Siddique and Obaidul Hassan as well as four former Appellate Division judges Justice Muhammad Iman Ali, Justice Mirza Hussain Haider, Justice Abu Bakar Siddiquee and Justice Md Nuruzzaman.
Advocate Yunus Ali Akand filed the petition with the High Court accusing the seven judges of punishing him without giving him any opportunity to take part in any hearing to defend his case, by abusing their power and violating the Contempt of Courts Act, 1926.
The HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Mohammad Mahbub Ul Islam will hear the petition, Advocate Yunus Ali Akand told the media.
The lawyer said, “The seven judges first issued a contempt of
court rule against me on September 27 in 2020, suspending me from practising at the apex court, without giving me any opportunity to take part in any hearing. On October 12 in 2020, they imposed cost on me and suspended me from practising for three months.”
He said that the High Court can punish someone if the charge is proved under Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Act. Section 32 of the Bar Council Act provides that a tribunal may suspend a lawyer from the profession on a finding of professional misconduct.
“If they (the seven judges) filed a case in the High Court, I could go to the Appellate Division. But they called me directly to the Appellate Division and issued a contempt order. I had no further appeal,” said the lawyer.
When asked why he was punished at that time, Advocate Yunus Ali Akand said that he had posted on Facebook that these judges were taking the judiciary to the brink of destruction. Because of that, the Appellate Division punished him for contempt of court.
According to the lawyer, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Supreme Court of India are not the same. A case can be filed directly in the Supreme Court of India. However, according to Article 102 of the Constitution, a case can be filed directly in the High Court Division of Bangladesh and according to Article 103, an appeal can be made to the Appellate Division. A case cannot be filed directly in the Appellate Division. An appeal of a contempt of court judgment by the High Court can be brought to the Appellate Division under Article 103 (2)(c) of the Constitution.
“The said judges extrajudicially broke their oath and debarred my practice by issuing interim order without giving me an opportunity to be heard, which is a violation of human rights under Article 11 of the Constitution,” said Advocate Yunus Ali Akand.
On October 12 in 2020, the Appellate Division had banned lawyer Yunus Ali Akand for next three months from practicing in both the Appellate and High Court divisions of the Supreme Court for ‘making derogatory comments’ about the judiciary on Facebook. He was also fined Tk. 25,000.
The bench of seven judges, headed by the-then Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, had passed the order. The six other accused were in the bench as they were judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in that time.
That was the first time that a lawyer was given such a sentence in the country.
On September 27 in 2020, Yunus Ali Akand criticized the-then virtual court in a Facebook post, following which the-then Additional Attorney General Murad Reza drew court’s attention to the post. Taking the complaint into account, the Appellate Division issued the order and directed BTRC to remove the post and block Yunus Ali Akand’s Facebook account.
Later, the lawyer signed a bond stating that he will not commit such an act in the future, but the apex court had rejected it.
