The government will appoint at least four judges to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court within this week to try and speed up the disposal of over 9,000 pending cases, law minister Shafique Ahmed has said. The four senior high court judges to be elevated to the Appellate Division, according to a recommendation from the Chief Justice, are: Justice M.A. Wahhab Miah, Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice M. Imman Ali.
The Appellate Division has been facing a severe shortage of judges for months, and Chief Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque had made his recommendation to the President to appoint the four judges as early as the second week of January.
But the long-awaited appointments had been held up following quit threats from a group of nine High Court judges who had not been chosen for elevation to the Appellate Division.
Under Article 95 of the Constitution, the President of the country appoints the judges of the Appellate Division and High Court Division of the Supreme Court in keeping with the Chief Justice’s recommendations. Vacant Appellate Division posts are filled by elevating judges from the High Court Division.
No new judge has been appointed to the Appellate Division in the past 16 months, Supreme Court sources said. The Appellate Division is now left with only four judges following the retirement of its seven other judges.
The four sitting judges are: Chief Justice Haque, Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman, Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and Justice S.K. Sinha. Justice Rahman, who will retire on November 11 next year, has been on leave on health grounds since the Chief Justice’s appointment.
Soon after the Awami League-led grand alliance assumed power, the President had on July 9, 2009, raised the number of judges in the Appellate Division from seven to 11 to deal with the piling backlog of cases. The current government has so far appointed 42 judges to the High Court Division.
The government had earlier decided to appoint the four judges recommended by the Chief Justice to the Appellate Division within the month of January, but the resignation threats from nine other High Court judges stalled the move, sources said.
These nine High Court judges, who had been dropped during the tenure of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government, are demanding that two of them be appointed to the apex court to uphold their seniority, according to news published in various national dailies.
The nine judges were reappointed on March 25, 2009, following a verdict of the Supreme Court. But the verdict did not allow the government to appoint them with seniority.
The nine judges, who have threatened to quit or go on indefinite leave, are Justice Md Momtazuddin Ahmed, Justice Md Shamsul Huda, Justice Faruque Ahmed, Justice Hasan Fayez Siddique, Justice Md Abdul Hye, Justice Md Abdur Razzaque, Justice Marzi-ul Huq, Justice Md Nizamul Huq and Justice A.H.M. Shamsuddin Chowdhury
