Gazette notification next week?

The government may not issue a gazette notification on the rules of discipline and code of conduct for lower court judges within this week even though the Supreme Court had given a two-week ultimatum for issuing the notification 15 days ago.

Yesterday, Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government would finalise the rules and code of conduct and publish the gazette notification by the next week.

The rules will be finalised after a meeting with Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Thursday, the minister told The Daily Star after a meeting with the chief justice at his SC office in Dhaka yesterday.

“After finalising the rules, these will be sent to the president. Following president's endorsement, the gazette notification will be issued,” he said.

On July 2, the seven-member bench of the Appellate Division gave the government a two-week ultimatum for issuing the gazette. “It's the last chance,” head of the bench, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, had said.

On that day, the law minister hoped that the gazette notification would be issued before July 15.

With July 2's ultimatum, the apex court has so far extended the deadline 20 times for issuing the gazette notification, SC sources said. 

Yesterday, the apex court was scheduled to hear this issue, but it adjourned the hearing till today, as Attorney General Mahbubey Alam was absent.