Kuddus, who attended the hearing, said the ruling strengthened the original constitutional provisions.
The ruling also repeals the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, passed under the government of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, giving Parliament the mandate to impeach judges rather than the Supreme Judicial Council, which is made up of Supreme Court justices. Ta.
The 16th Amendment was passed in January 2014, relaxing the Supreme Judicial Council’s powers to remove judges for incompetence or misconduct. However, in May 2016, a three-judge Superior Court bench declared the 16th Amendment unconstitutional, and the state filed a challenge in January 2017.
A seven-judge Appellate Division Bench, led by then Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the High Court’s July 2017 ruling, declaring the 16th Amendment “unlawful”. Following the ruling, Hasina’s government filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking the Supreme Court to review the decision, which was settled by the Supreme Court’s judgment on Sunday.
A 2017 Supreme Court ruling on the issue put Sinha in apparent conflict with the government of the day, and he was ultimately forced to resign while abroad and has remained outside Bangladesh ever since. A mass student-led uprising ended Hasina’s nearly 15-year rule and forced her to leave the country on August 5. Four days later, Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus was appointed as the interim government’s chief advisor. Since taking power, the new government has arrested several ministers and leaders from the Awami League government that Hasina had ousted.
