Chief Justice walks out of court at one stage of Mahbub Uddin Khokon’s speech

Chief Justice Zubair Rahman Chowdhury and four judges of the Appellate Division walked out of the court at one stage of the speech of Supreme Court Bar Association President Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon. 

The incident took place at around 12:30 pm on Tuesday, in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

The incident emerged during a hearing on the order to impose five lakh taka costs on a lawyer in a case. At one stage of the hearing, Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon addressed the Chief Justice and said, “The income of lawyers has decreased since you became the Chief Justice.”

After this comment, the Chief Justice said, “Your comment is tantamount to contempt of court.” At one stage, he said, “We will not sit again today.” 

Then the Appellate Division bench led by the Chief Justice left the courtroom.

Later, Supreme Court Bar Association President Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon spoke to reporters. 

He said that a lawyer had been fined five lakh taka. He was humbly requesting the Chief Justice to waive the fine.

Mahbub Uddin Khokon said, “I told the Chief Justice that after you became the Chief Justice, cases are not being heard as before. Due to this, the income of lawyers has decreased. It is too much to impose five lakh taka on a junior lawyer and I urged the Chief Justice to forgive him. Then the Chief Justice said, ‘Has the income of lawyers decreased after I became the Chief Justice?’ I wanted to explain to him that earlier there was a bench of 11 judges. There were three benches. We used to hear cases in three benches. If a case is stayed... we cannot hear it there. Even if it is stayed in the chamber court, it takes a year to hear it. There is no mention there why this case was at the top (in the cause list) and why it went down and since it is a bench, people have not been getting justice for a long time, they cannot hear the case. If there is a case, the lawyers will have an income. Whether it is less or more. I said it very politely. I did not think that he would react so much. They are supposed to judge above anger and arrogance. And as a representative of lawyers, I have an obligation to appeal to him on behalf of the lawyers.”

Meanwhile, Attorney General Ruhul Quddus Kazal has described the incident of the Chief Justice and the judges of the Appellate Division leaving the courtroom as unexpected. 

On Tuesday, at a press conference in his office, he said that the issue of the Chief Justice leaving the bench is being exaggerated and publicised.

The Appellate Division fined the writ petitioner Md. Nur Alam and his lawyer Sufia Ahmed Tk 5 lakh each for a total of Tk 10 lakh for concealing information and cheating by filing multiple writ cases in the same incident regarding the appointment of a Nikah Registrar. 

The fine amount has been asked to be paid to Dhaka Children’s Hospital within 30 days. 

Senior lawyer Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon was the lawyer for Nur Alam while Senior lawyer Aneek R Haque, senior lawyer Md. Shishir Monir and lawyer Amit Das Gupta were the lawyers for the other Nikah Registrar Mizanur Rahman Murad.