Supreme Court Secretariat abolished, officials attached with Ministry

The 'Supreme Court Secretariat' formed with the aim of making the judiciary independent and self-sufficient has been declared abolished. After this abolition, a total of 15 officials, including the senior secretary of the newly formed Supreme Court Secretariat, have been re-attachec with the Law Ministry.

On Tuesday (May 19), a formal notification in this regard was issued by the Law and Justice Department on the order of the President. The notification said that the government took this decision after necessary consultations with the Supreme Court.

Although an ordinance was issued during the previous interim government to form a separate and independent secretariat for the Supreme Court, the current government has not made it a final law.

Article 22 of the Basic Principles of State Governance in Part II of the original Constitution of Bangladesh of 1972 had mentioned ensuring 'separation of the judiciary from the executive branch'. However, even after 20 long years have passed since this declaration of the constitution, no visible effective steps have been taken to implement it. In 1994, when there was intense anger over the salary grade of the judges of the subordinate courts, a writ was filed in the High Court on behalf of the then Judge Masdar Hossain and 441 judges.

After the final hearing of this writ, the High Court issued a historic order in 1997 declaring the Judicial Service as an independent service. Later, when the state appealed against this verdict, the Appellate Division issued a final verdict on December 2, 1999 after a long hearing. The verdict in the Masdar Hossain case gave some specific instructions, one of which was that according to Article 116 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court would have full control over the judicial magistrates, the judiciary would not be under the Parliament or the Executive Branch, and the Supreme Court itself would formulate and allocate the annual budget of the lower courts, where there would be no interference from the Executive Branch.

Almost eight years after that historic verdict of the Appellate Division, on November 1, 2007, during the tenure of the then military-backed caretaker government, the judiciary was officially declared separate from the executive branch on paper and in writing. However, for a long time, that announcement was limited to documents only. After the mass uprising of students and the public on August 5, 2024, Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed was appointed as the 25th Chief Justice of the country on August 10. In a speech given at the Inner Garden of the Supreme Court on September 21, he clearly stated that the full implementation of the Masdar Hossain case is essential to ensure the institutional independence of the judiciary. He noted that although Article 116A of the Constitution speaks of the independence of judges, real independence will not come until the joint jurisdiction of the Law Ministry and the Supreme Court or the long-standing 'dual governance system' is completely abolished and a separate secretariat is established.

Following this intransigence of the Chief Justice, a formal proposal for a separate secretariat was sent to the Law Ministry on October 27, 2024. At the same time, the Judicial Reforms Commission also made strong recommendations to establish a Supreme Court Secretariat and ensure the administrative and financial independence of the judiciary. The Reform Commission's recommendation was that in order to make the judiciary meaningfully independent, a separate Supreme Court Secretariat must be established in light of Article 22 of the Constitution and the Masdar Hossain case verdict.

After completing all legal and administrative processes, a separate 'Supreme Court Secretariat Establishment Ordinance' was issued on November 30 last year to achieve the desired goal of separating the judiciary. However, after the new government took office, the ordinance was not converted into a law and the Supreme Court Secretariat itself was declared abolished today.ৃ