Daily Star January 12, 2015
SK Sinha new chief justice
Staff
Correspondent
Justice
Surendra Kumar Sinha, known as SK Sinha, the most senior judge of the Appellate
Division, has been appointed as the 21st chief justice of the country.
He will be
the first ever chief justice from the Hindus in the history of Bangladesh, Law
Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star.
President
Abdul Hamid made the appointment as per the constitution and will administer
the oath of office to the new chief justice at his official residence
Bangabhaban on January 17. The law ministry issued a gazette notification
in this regard yesterday.
The
appointment will come into effect on January 17, as the incumbent chief
justice, Md Muzammel Hossain, will retire the day before.
During his
period in the Appellate Division, Justice Sinha was a member of the apex court
benches that delivered a number of landmark judgments, including those on the
killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the fifth, seventh and
thirteenth amendments to the constitution.
Twelve
killers of Bangabandhu and his family members had been convicted and sentenced
to death by the Supreme Court.
An SC bench
declared illegal the 5th amendment to the constitution, which legitimised the
regimes of Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, and Maj Gen
Ziaur Rahman between August 15, 1975 and April 9, 1979 after the assassination
of Bangabandhu on August 15, 1975.
Another SC
bench declared illegal the seventh amendment to the constitution, which
endorsed the military rule of HM Ershad.
Justice
Sinha was also in the Appellate Division bench that scrapped the 13th amendment
made to introduce caretaker government to conduct parliamentary elections.
He is now a
member of the bench that is dealing with the appeals in the cases filed for
crimes against humanity committed during the country's Liberation War in 1971.
Justice Sinha has been serving as chairman of Bangladesh Judicial Service
Commission since 2011.
He will
remain chief justice for a little over three years since his retirement is due
in early 2018.
Justice
Sinha obtained LLB, joined as an advocate of the district court, Sylhet in 1974
and practised there under the guidance of two renowned civil and criminal
lawyers. He conducted sessions trial cases independently till the end of 1977.
He joined
the High Court and the Appellate Division in 1978 and 1990. During this period,
he worked with eminent lawyer SR Pal as his junior until he was promoted as
judge of the High Court on October 24, 1999.
He was made
judge of the Appellate Division on July 16, 2009.
Justice
Sinha participated in the 3rd International Conference of the Chief Justices of
the World held at Lucknow, India in 2002 as a representative of the chief
justice of Bangladesh, in the judicial training programme for the senior judges
of Bangladesh at Seoul, Korea in 2006 and judicial development programme in
Korea, 2010.
Published: 12:02 am Tuesday, January 13, 2015
