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Impeachment Bill

JS panel for scrapping preamble

Staff Correspondent
A parliamentary body yesterday decided in principle to recommend scrapping of the entire preamble to the constitutional amendment bill seeking to restore the Jatiya Sangsad's authority to remove a Supreme Court judge on grounds of misbehaviour or incapacity.
Scrutinising the bill, the parliamentary standing committee on the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry termed the preamble irrelevant and misleading, meeting sources said.
"All the members of the committee agreed to drop the preamble to the bill placed in parliament [on Sunday]," committee chair Suranjit Sengupta told a press briefing after the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
“This is a small amendment to the constitution. There is no need for such a long preamble to the bill," he mentioned.
Sources said committee members at the meeting came down heavily on the law minister for needlessly including the preamble to the bill.
Instead of the present preamble, the committee will propose a preamble in a sentence.
The preamble, said Suranjit, states that Article 96 of the constitution will be revived to restore parliament's authority to remove a SC judge. But it is not possible now as the retirement age of the SC judges was 62 in the constitution adopted in 1972 but was raised to 67 through a constitutional amendment in 2004, he pointed out.
"Therefore, it's not possible to restore Article 96 to its original position. Many judges will lose their jobs if we go back to the original provision," said the legislator.
The preamble also put the blame on
military ruler Gen Ziaur Rahman for introduction of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) through a martial law order in 1978 to remove SC judges.
However, the provision for the SJC introduced by the military ruler does not exist in the constitution any more as it was declared illegal and void by the SC earlier.
The present provision for the chief justice-led SJC was introduced by the Awami League-led government through the 15th amendment to the constitution in 2011.
The preamble, however, concealed this fact.
In Suranjit's view, the preamble also unnecessarily spoke about the impeachment, removal and resignation of the president, prime minister and speaker. They are elected representatives of the people, but the judges are appointed officials, he added.
Asked whether the parliamentary body would seek the opinion of stakeholders, the committee chief said they would do so if the law ministry agreed. The law minister will inform the committee today about the government's position on it.