The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday unanimously upheld the High Court (HC) verdict that declared illegal the 16th amendment of the constitution which had empowered the parliament to impeach judges.
A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division of SC, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, pronounced the verdict around 10.27am.
The verdict announcement of the case was kept at No. 1 of the today’s cause list of the Supreme Court.
Earlier on February 8, the SC appointed 12 senior jurists as amici curiae (friends of court) seeking their opinions over the legality of the 16th amendment.
They are TH Khan, Dr Kamal Hossain, Barrister Rafiqul Haque, Barrister M Amirul Islam, Barrister AF Hasan Arif, Barrister Shafique Ahmed, AJ Mohammad Ali, Barrister Rokonuddin, Fida M Kamal. Barrister Ajmalul Hossain, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan and Barrister MI Farooqui.
On September 17, 2014, the Jatiya Sangsad passed the `Constitution (16th Amendment) Bill, 2014` without any opposition, empowering Parliament to impeach judges of the Supreme Court for their `incapacity` or `misconduct`.
Nine Supreme Court lawyers filed a writ petition with the High Court on November 5, 2014, questioning the validity of the amendment.
On May 5 last year, the HC declared the 16th Amendment to the Constitution illegal. The government on January 4 last filed an appeal challenging the HC decision.