Chief justice seeks one-month leave

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has sought a leave for one month from the President Abdul Hamid showing cause of illness.

He sought the leave from the President on Monday afternoon, sources of Law Ministry and Attorney General Office confirmed.

The chief justice has wanted to go on leave from Tuesday. The Supreme Court is due to resume its regular activities on that day after 39-day vacation.

The president will issue a notification regarding his leave and who will be the acting chief justice.

On the basis of seniority, Justice Abdul Wahab Mia may get the responsibility in absence of the chief justice.

Surendra Kumar Sinha’s tenure as the chief justice will come to end on January 31, 2018.

The first chief justice from religious minority group faced huge criticism from the leaders and Members of Parliament of the ruling party Awami League following the apex court’s verdict scarping the 16th constitutional amendment which empowered parliament to remove or impeach justices of the Supreme Court.

Ruling party men called for Sinha to step down from his position as he in his opinion brought an example of Pakistan’s Supreme Court which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from holding public office on the Panama Papers case.