Corrupt judges must be axed to establish rule of law: HC

The High Court has observed that corrupt judges must be immediately removed in order to keep all other judges of the judiciary free from graft.

A division bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil made the observations in full text of a verdict released on Thursday.

On December 11 last year, the HC passed the verdict following two separate writ petitions filed by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works challenging a verdict given by the First Court of Settlement of Dhaka on November 27, 1995.

Khandker Musa Khaled, Md Taha Mollah and Farid Uddin Aktar, the then judges of First Court of Settlement of Dhaka, had excluded 16 katha land at Kakrail in Dhaka from the list of abandoned property.

The First Court of Settlement also bequeathed the property to four claimants. KAM Ashraf Uddin got six katha, Lutfunnissa Rahman four katha, AKM Idris Hossain and his wife Jamila Khatun six katha.

Setting a aside the first settlement court verdict, the HC said "Corruption free judiciary is one of the preconditions to rule of law."

The HC said First Court of Settlement led by Khandker Musa Khaled created precedent by handing over the property of the state worth crores to a gang of frauds without any documents and evidence.

The judiciary's dignity was damaged by this act, the HC said.

"When a gang of frauds witness that property worth Tk thousand crore can become theirs without any documents and evidence, then people get the message that the judiciary is for frauds, touts and affluent people not the general public," the HC added..

Rule of law and judicial corruption cannot run concurrently, said HC adding “ If the judicial officers and staff members become corrupt, then rule of law will remain confined in books."

The High Court directed the authorities concerned to draw attention of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to this verdict so that she can take appropriate step in this regard.