BANGLADESH

Chief justice suspends judicial powers of judge Kamrun Nahar

Chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on Sunday morning suspended the judicial powers of judge Mosammat Kamrun Nahar, the judge in the Raintree rape case, for penning a verdict in which she asked the police not to record a rape case after 72 hours of the offence.

The chief justice has also instructed that the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-7 judge should not sit in court from Sunday.

The chief justice also asked the law ministry to send a written proposal to the Supreme Court’s General Administration Committee for getting its final approval over the decision as per the constitution.

Mosammat Kamrun Nahar, the judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-7 in Dhaka came to her chamber at the court in the morning but she refrained from sitting in courtroom as the decision of suspending her judicial powers was broadcasted in different media in the morning.

The chief justice’s decision came a day after the law minister Anisul Huq told reporters at a discussion that the ministry would request the chief justice to take action against judge Kamrun Nahar for making an ‘illegal and unconstitutional observation’.

The minister made the comment after taking part in a discussion organised by Bangabandhu Awami Ainjibi Parishad Paribar commemorating late senior Supreme Court lawyer Abdul Baset Majumder.

The law minister called the tribunal’s observation as illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional’, stating that there was no timeframe in the Code of Criminal Procedure for filing a case for a criminal offence.

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain made the decision after consulting with the other senior justices, the statement said.

“The Supreme Court sent a letter to the Ministry of Law at 9:30 am today to temporarily revoke her criminal jurisdiction and withdraw her from her current workplace and assign her to the Ministry of Law’s Law and Justice Department.”

On Thursday, Kamrun Nahar, as the judge of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-7 in Dhaka, made the observation about the time framing of filing a rape case after acquitting five youths, including Apan Jewellers owner’s son Shafat Ahmed, of the charge of raping two university students at Raintree Dhaka hotel in the capital’s Banani area in 2017.

In her observations, the judge wrote: “The investigating officer submitted a biased chargesheet in the case. The medical reports on the victims did not find any signs of sexual violation. The DNA found on the victims’ clothes did not match the suspects. The victims came to the police 38 days after the incident, saying they had been raped. The investigating officer should have given the matter proper consideration.”

Instead, the officer “wasted the public’s time”, the judge said, instructing that no rape cases should be filed if 72 hours have passed since the incident.

She also said it was proved that the university students had consensual sex before the incident.

Rights activists and lawyers criticised the tribunal’s observation and people from different walks of life also brought out a procession from Shahbagh in Dhaka early Friday protesting at the observation of the tribunal.

Law Minister Anisul Huq said on Saturday that the judge will face action over the matter.

“Let me make one thing clear – I don’t want to talk about the content of the verdict. But her observation asking the police not to record a case 72 hours after rape is totally illegal and unconstitutional,” the law minister had said.

“I am writing to the chief justice tomorrow (Sunday) seeking steps over her duty as a judge.”

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