Judicial Service Assoc to file writ petitions today

Forced retirement of 2 judges
The emergency meeting of Bangladesh Judicial Service Association (BJSA) scheduled for yesterday morning was postponed in the greater interest of the country, the organisers said. 
The emergency meeting was to be held on the Dhaka judge court’s premises yesterday to discuss the next course of action following the forced retirement of two senior judges, president and general secretary of the association.
But the association decided that two separate writ petitions would be filed today before the High Court challenging the validity of the government order retiring two judges.
“As judges, we should move forward carefully considering the greater interest of the country. So, we postponed our Saturday’s meeting, but decided, to file writ petitions with the High Court on Sunday,” BJSA Secretary General and judge of Gazipur Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal judge Md Shahjahan told The Independent.   
He said as all judges had been asked to attend Saturday’s emergency meeting scheduled to be held at 10:00 am at the association’s conference room, judges from across the country started gathering since early morning and expressed their resentment over the government order. The association however decided to postpone the meeting to avoid further commotion.
“The government’s decision to send two judges into forced retirement is ‘illegal and unconstitutional,’ as it cannot remove or send into retirement any judge without consultation with the Supreme Court,” Shahjahan said.
He said with the separation of the judiciary, the service of the judges is now guided by the Bangladesh Judicial Service (Constitution, Recruitment, Suspension, Dismissal and Removal) Rules 2007.
According to sources, the Association’s decision to postpone the meeting was taken following “assurances” by a competent government functionary their problems would be looked into with all seriousness. 
It may be mentioned that on July 30, the government sent into forced retirement Dhaka District and Sessions Judge Abdul Gafur and Gazipur Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal judge Md Shahjahan, who led an agitation at secretariat earlier this week. The action was taken in accordance with Section 9(2) of the Public Servants (Retirement) Act, 1974.  The law ministry served the notices on the two judges as they along with over 100 lower court judges under the banner of BJSA staged a demonstration at the law ministry in protest against the move to divide the ministry into two divisions, on July 27.
The judicial officers protested when the police in charge of the secretariat, the home affairs ministry’s officials, wanted to search them and asked them to show their identity cards on security grounds.
On July 12 about 200 administration cadre officials from various ministries gathered at the law ministry to register their protest against deputation of judicial officers to executive positions.

Courtesy of The Independent