The face-off between a High Court bench of the Bangladesh Supreme
Court and the country’s parliament, the Jatiya Sangsad, that is being
currently witnessed is unprecedented as well as disgraceful. It is, in
our view, the result of insolence and ignorance. The outburst of
intemperance was perhaps the greater in the relevant High Court bench
although the consequential display of anger in the Jatiya Sangsad by
some senior members of the ruling party calling for the removal of
Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury from the judiciary seemed to us to be
greater than it was necessary. Indeed Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury (aka
Manik) is unlikely to win any significant measure of public support or
sympathy because he has already established a reputation of being rude
and haughty in the court room. This is due to the very harsh manner in
which he has treated a good number of respondents in the court room.
Such treatment included keeping them standing for hours during hearings
and showing epithets at them which, one suspects, were probably based on
one’s subjective judgment.

Moreover, it is debatable
whether the rules and tradition of the Supreme Court permits the use of
such language as he did many a time. In fact a lawyer practicing at the
Supreme Court, Advocate Mozammel Huq, has submitted a petition to the
President of Bangladesh for the trial of Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury at
the Supreme Judicial Council on the charge of abusing him in his court
room in very offensive language. The lawyer has written to President
Zillur Rahman that Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury had compared him to a
monkey. Advocate Mozammel Huq has further complained that he felt
gravely insulted and much humiliated by this judge. Advocate Huq said in
his petition that it appeared to him that Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury
has lost his mental balance. It is a serious charge.

In the mean time, front row treasury bench members of parliament
have proposed two days in a row that a resolution from the Jatiya
Sangsad be sent to the country’s President requesting him to institute a
Supreme Judicial Council to impeach Justice Shamsuddin Choudhury.
Speaker of the parliament Advocate Abdul Hamid will give his decision
shortly in this regard. The controversial judge, it may be noted, had
declared in his court room that the Speaker had committed sedition by
stating in parliament that if citizens get angry then they can rise to
block even decisions of courts and therefore use of prudence was
necessary. He had also said that none should get an inflated sense of
importance and power because of his position. His comments came in the
wake of angry complaints by some members relating to an over by Justice
Shamsuddin Chowdhury for the removal of the head offices of the Roads
and Highways Department from the land of the Supreme Court. However, the
Speaker was right in sounding the cautionary note. After all courts
cannot battle mass upsurges. It may be recalled the dropping of charges
against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others in the so called Agartala
Conspiracy in 1969 was the result of a huge protest by Bengalees. That
movement taken to a peak by Maulana Bhasani after the killing of Sgt.
Zahurul Huq in the Dhaka Cantonment by Pakistani soldiers forced the
trial of the case to a halt. Thus it is good to remember that there are
domains where the writ of the courts do not run, neither do executive
orders of the government can be given effect to, nor resolutions of the
parliament can be implemented.

The sad thing about this controversy involving a High Court judge
and the parliament is that neither the issue involved is profound nor is
it of any real worth to the public. Basically, the unsavoury drama
stems from unhealthy partisanship. The courtroom of Justice Shamsuddin
Choudhury had witnessed unhappy scenes when he had rebuked leader of the
opposition Begum Khaleda Zia in her absence and without giving her a
chance to defend herself. He has been known to be a devout follower of
Awami League.

This ongoing quarrel and several others erupting recently
demonstrate that clashes of interest and personalities are taking place
in the ruling circles defying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s iron fist
over them. These are also signs of the chaos which the present
government has created in the country.