Review against 16th amendment scrap built on ‘100 grounds’

The attorney general’s office has finalised the draft it will file seeking review against the scrapping of 16th amendment to the constitution, which empowered the parliament to impeach judges.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star that it is built on 100 grounds of consideration and the review will be filed before the Supreme Court before the end of this month.

“We are now scrutinising the grounds of the review petition. The number of the grounds may be changed when the petition will be filed after finalisation,” he said this afternoon.

Advocate Mahbubey Alam, the top law officer of the state, however, refused to disclose the contents of the petition’s grounds, as it is yet to be filed with the apex court.

According to the Supreme Court rules, the review petition has to be filed within 30 days from the date of receiving the certified copy. Accordingly, the review petition has to be filed by December 25.

The attorney general earlier told this correspondent that the government in the petition would pray to the apex court to restore parliament's power to remove SC judges.

In the full verdict released on August 1, the apex court said the provision of Supreme Judicial Council for the removal of SC judges for misconduct or incapacity has been reinstated in the constitution. An 11-member committee, led by the attorney general, was formed in October for filing the review petition.

The SC's dismissal of the 16th amendment to the constitution has been a much talked-about topic among politicians from the ruling party as the SC in its full verdict made some observations, which were critical of the country's present political culture.