Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed on Thursday emphasised that the judiciary should view amendments to the Constitution not as a threat, but as a reflection of democratic reality.
“People hold constitutional authority and can amend the Constitution over time. The judiciary must accept this not as a threat but as a democratic reality,” he said while addressing a farewell reception at Courtroom No 1 of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice said the strength of the judiciary does not lie in any single office but in a collective commitment to serve with justice, balance and foresight.
Addressing judges and lawyers of both divisions of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice said they have together passed through a significant period in the country’s judicial history.
He expressed gratitude for the cooperation he received over the last 16 months.
Refaat Ahmed said the state is run under the Constitution through three principal organs, namely the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. “The Supreme Court building is not merely a structure but one of the three foundations of civic life. Judges are usually credited for verdicts but it is the lawyers who shape the language, reasoning and structure of those judgments.”
Refaat Ahmed said in an unstable world, the judiciary’s stability, restraint, integrity and courage can be the most reliable source of national steadiness.
Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed will retire on December 27.
The farewell reception was organised to mark his last working day in line with tradition.
Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman first spoke on the Chief Justice’s professional life followed by speeches from Supreme Court Bar Association President AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon.
Following the fall of the Awami League government after the July mass uprising, Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed took oath as the country’s 25th Chief Justice on August 11 last year.
As per the Constitution, judges retire at the age of 67. Born on December 28, 1958, the Chief Justice will reach that age on December 27.
Syed Refaat was born on 28 December 1958. His father, Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed, was a legendary legal mind and an Attorney General of Bangladesh and his mother, Language Movement veteran Sufia Ahmed, was a National Professor of Bangladesh and a professor of Islamic History and Culture at the University of Dhaka.
He obtained LL.B. (Hons) (First Class, First in order of merit), University of Dhaka. He completed a bachelor of arts in jurisprudence and masters at the Wadham College of Oxford University in 1983.
Later, he completed his Masters and PhD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, USA. He was also a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law at The Fletcher School.
In 1984, Ahmed became a lawyer of the District Courts. He became a lawyer of the High Court Division in 1986. In 2002, he became a lawyer of the High Court Division.
Later, he was appointed an additional justice of the Bangladesh High Court on 27 April 2003. Ahmed was made a permanent Judge on the High Court Division on 27 April 2005.
Justice Refaat Ahmed also worked as a Lawyer in the City of London and with the UNHCR in Hong Kongand Washington, D.C.