The High Court has come down heavily on a group of lawyers of Brahmanbaria and said that the lawyers have created a black mark in the legal history of Bangladesh.
The HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil made the observation on Tuesday (February 14) when three lawyers, including president and secretary of Brahmanbaria District Bar Association, appeared before the court to explain the allegations of indecent behavior with a judge in the courtroom.
“The Brahmanbaria Bar Association has created a black mark in the legal history of Bangladesh,” said the HC bench.
President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Advocate Md Momtaz Uddin Fakir and secretary Advocate Abdun Noor Dulal and Advocate Sayed Ahmed Raza stood for the Brahmanbaria lawyers at the court.
In the beginning of hearing, Momtaz Uddin Fakir told the High Court that the issue of Brahmanbaria is being peacefully solved as all courts are resuming their activities from Tuesday. “Give us a month as we have some work to resolve the problem completely,” he said.
Replying to this, the High Court said no development has been made till now. They (lawyers of Brahmanbaria) are just wasting time and they have made the Brahmanbaria court, a constitutional institution, non-operational. The court is observing everything.
It is a crime worse than contempt of court, said the HC bench and warned that the High Court will think about whether they are eligible to practice in Bangladesh or not.
No one is above law, be it the president or the member of the Bar Association, the HC bench said adding that if the Bar Council does not take any action, the High Court will do whatever is necessary.
Besides, the High Court fixed February 26 for the next hearing.
On January 10, the High Court summoned 21 lawyers including the Brahmanbaria Bar Association secretary to explain the allegation of contempt of court for chanting indecent slogans against the district judge during the court session.
The court also issued a rule to explain why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them.
Brahmanbaria District and Sessions Judge Sharmin Nigar sent a letter to the Supreme Court in this regard on January 9.
Earlier on January 5, the same HC bench summoned three lawyers including Brahmanbaria Bar Association president on January 17 for misbehaving with the district Woman and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Mohammad Faruk.
Those summoned areBar Association president Advocate Tanvir Ahmed Bhuiyan, Secretary (Administration) Advocate Md Akkas Ali and Advocate Zubair Islam.
The court also issued a rule questioning as to why punitive action should not be taken against them on contempt of court charge.
On January 4, district Woman and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Mohammad Faruk sent a written complaint to the High Court to take action against those involved in this incident. Later, on the instructions of the Chief Justice, the Registrar General of the Supreme Court sent the written complaint of the judge to the HC bench.
On January 2, Brahmanbaria Bar Association president advocate Md Tanvir Bhuiyan, Secretary Advocate Md Akkas Ali and around 10-15 lawyers came and rudely asked the judge to leave the courtroom. Advocate Tanvir hurled abusive words at the court, as per the complaint.
Meanwhile, the lawyers of Brahmanbaria, who have been boycotting courts since January 4, resumed the judicial proceedings of all courts, except Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1, from Tuesday.
The decision to resume the court activities was taken at a meeting of the Brahmanbaria Bar Association held on Monday.
Earlier on Sunday, a meeting was held at Brahmanbaria Circuit House in the presence of Law Minister Anisul Huq, Brahmanbaria-3 constituency MP and District unit Awami League President RAM Obaidul Moktadir, law secretary Golam Sarwar and others, where the law minister assured the lawyers of addressing the issue.