Supreme Court
New CEC, four ECs take oath
Newly-appointed Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal and four election commissioners took oath of office on Sunday afternoon.
Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique administered the oath at the Judges’ Lounge of the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Registrar General Md Ali Akbar moderated the function.
President Md Abdul Hamid on Saturday appointed former Senior Secretary Kazi Habibul Awal as the CEC as well as four others --District and Session Judge (Retd) Begum Rashida Sultana, Brig Gen (Retd) Ahsan Habib Khan, Senior Secretary (Retd) M Alamgir and Senior Secretary (Retd) Anisur Rahman as the election commissioners.
The new Election Commission, constituted for the first time under a law in line with the Constitution, will take charge of office on Monday.
The immediate past commission, headed by KM Nurul Huda, completed its five year tenure on February 14 last.
Read: President appoints former defence secretary Kazi Habibul Awal as the new CEC
Kazi Habibul Awal went on retirement as defence secretary in January, 2015.
The new election commission was also formed through a search committee as was done in case of the last two commissions in 2017 and 2012.
The search committee, headed by Justice Oabidul Hassan of the Appellate Division, proposed 10 names –two against each post— for the appointment of CEC and ECs.
President Abdul Hamid received the 10 names on Thursday last.
Earlier, the search committee sought the names for the EC’s constitution from registered political parties. But BNP and several others did not send any names.
The committee also held a series of meetings with eminent citizens, civil society representatives and media personalities in this regard.
The newly formed Kazi Habibul Awal-led Election Commission will face the challenge to conduct the 12th parliamentary elections to be held in late 2023 or early 2024.
The five-year tenure of the incumbent parliament will expire on January 28, 2024. But the general election shall be held within 90 days before the expiry of Parliament.
Biden nominates Jackson, first Black woman, to Supreme Court
President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, the first Black woman selected to serve on a court that once declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed American segregation.
Introducing Jackson at the White House, Biden declared, “I believe it’s time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation.”
With his nominee standing alongside, the president praised her as having “a pragmatic understanding that the law must work for the American people.” He said, “She strives to be fair, to get it right, to do justice.”
In Jackson, Biden delivered on a campaign promise to make the historic appointment and further diversify a court that was made up entirely of white men for almost two centuries.
He also chose an attorney who would be the high court’s first former public defender, though she possesses the elite legal background of other justices as well.
Jackson would be the current court’s second Black member — Clarence Thomas, a conservative, is the other — and just the third in history. She would replace liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, who is retiring at the end of the term this summer, so she won’t change the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
Jackson would join the court as it weighs cutbacks to abortion rights and will be considering ending affirmative action in college admissions and restricting voting rights efforts to increase minority representation.
Also read: COVID-19 death number in U.S. likely undercounted: expert
She would be only the sixth woman to serve on the court, but she would join three others already there, including the first Latina, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
In brief remarks, Jackson thanked Biden, saying she was “humbled by the extraordinary honor of this nomination.” She highlighted her family’s first-hand experience with the entirety of the legal system, as judges and lawyers, an uncle who was Miami’s police chief and another who was imprisoned on drug charges.
She also spoke of the historic nature of her nomination, noting she shared a birthday with Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to be confirmed to the federal bench.
“If I’m fortunate enough to be confirmed as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court United States, I can only hope that my life and career, my love of this country and the Constitution, and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation was founded, will inspire future generations of Americans,” she said.
Jackson, 51, once worked as one of Breyer’s law clerks early in her legal career. She attended Harvard as an undergraduate and for law school, and served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the agency that develops federal sentencing policy, before becoming a federal judge in 2013.
Her nomination is subject to confirmation by the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority by a razor-thin 50-50 margin with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker. Party leaders have promised swift but deliberate consideration.
Friday’s ceremony was attended only by White House staff, Jackson’s family and news media, in part because the Senate is out of session this week.
Also read: US Supreme Court likely to bar some ‘green card’ applicants
Everyone wore masks because of the pandemic, Biden and Jackson removing theirs to speak. He bent to pull out a lectern step for her to stand on as she made her remarks.
Her introduction came two years to the day after Biden, then struggling to capture the Democratic presidential nomination, pledged in a South Carolina debate to nominate a Black woman if presented with a vacancy.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said in a statement that the panel will “begin immediately” to move forward on consideration of an “extraordinary nominee.” Senators have set a tentative goal of confirmation by April 8, when they leave for a two-week spring recess. Hearings could start as soon as mid-March.
That timeline could be complicated by a number of things, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the extended absence of Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, who suffered a stroke last month and is out for several weeks. Democrats would need Lujan’s vote to confirm Biden’s pick if no Republicans support her.
Once the nomination is sent to the Senate, it is up to the Senate Judiciary Committee to vet the nominee and hold confirmation hearings. After the committee approves a nomination, it goes to the Senate floor for a final vote.
Biden and Senate Democrats are hoping for a bipartisan vote on the nomination, but it’s unclear if they will be able to win over any GOP senators after bitterly partisan confirmation battles under President Donald Trump. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of three Republicans who voted to confirm Jackson to the appeals court last year, had pushed Biden to nominate a different candidate from his home state, Judge J. Michelle Childs, who also was favored by home-state Rep. James Clyburn, a Biden ally.
Graham said earlier this month his vote would be “very problematic” if it were anyone else, and he expressed disappointment in a tweet Friday. Previewing a likely Republican attack line, he and several others on the right said Biden was going with the choice of the “radical left.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he looked forward to meeting with Jackson and “studying her record, legal views and judicial philosophy.” But he noted he had voted against her a year ago.
Biden has said he was interested in selecting a nominee in the mold of Breyer who could be a persuasive force with fellow justices. Although Breyer’s votes tended to put him to the left of center on an increasingly conservative court, he frequently saw the gray in situations that colleagues were more likely to find black or white.
“Justice Breyer — the members of the Senate will decide if I fill your seat,” Jackson said Friday, praising the retiring justice’s “civility, grace, pragmatism and generosity of spirit.”
“But please know that I could never fill your shoes,” she said.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “With her exceptional qualifications and record of evenhandedness, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a justice who will uphold the Constitution and protect the rights of all Americans, including the voiceless and vulnerable.”
As part of his search process, Biden, a longtime chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also interviewed Childs and California Supreme Court Judge Leondra Kruger, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, saying all three interviews took place on Feb. 14. As part of his process, Biden also consulted with a range of legal experts and lawmakers in both parties and delved deeply into the finalists’ legal writings.
Biden called Jackson late Thursday to inform her that she was his choice, Psaki said, and he informed Democratic congressional leaders Friday morning.
Jackson serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a position that Biden elevated her to last year from her previous job as a federal trial court judge. Three current justices — Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, the chief justice — previously served on the same appeals court.
Jackson was confirmed to that post on a 53-44 Senate vote, winning the backing of three Republicans: Graham, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.
In one of Jackson’s most high-profile decisions, as a trial court judge she ordered former White House Counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress. That was a setback to Trump’s efforts to keep his top aides from testifying. The case was appealed, and a deal was ultimately reached for McGahn’s testimony.
As an appeals court judge, she was part of a three-judge panel that ruled in December against Trump’s effort to shield documents from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Miami. She has said that her parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, chose her name to express their pride in her family’s African ancestry. They asked an aunt who was in the Peace Corps in Africa at the time to send a list of African girls’ names and they picked Ketanji Onyika, which they were told meant “lovely one.”
Jackson traces her interest in the law to when she was in preschool and her father was in law school and they would sit together at the dining room table, she with coloring books and he with law books. Her father became an attorney for the county school board and her mother was a high school principal. A brother, nine years younger, served in the Army, including in Iraq, and is now a lawyer, too.
Film Artistes’ Association: No one holds office of general secretary until Feb 13: SC
Neither actor Zayed Khan nor his rival actress Nipun Akter can hold the office of the general secretary of Bangladesh Film Artistes’ Association until a full-bench hearing on the controversy is held on February 13, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.
Responding to an appeal by Nipun Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Obaidul Hassan passed the order that also stayed an earlier High Court ruling in favour of Zayed’s claim to have fairly won the January 28 election.
Barrister Rokon Uddin Mahmud and Barrister Mostafizur Rahman stood for actress Nipun while Advocate Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Advocate Ahsanul Karim and Advocate Nahid Sultana Juthi represented actor Zayed.
READ: Ilias Kanchan to vie for president in film artistes’ association elections
On Monday, a division bench of High Court justices Mamnoon Rahman and Khandaker Diliruzzaman stayed the decision of the Election Appellate Board that revoked the candidacy of Zayed for alleged irregularities in the vote and declared Nipun an uncontested winner.
The HC bench also stayed the effectiveness of the letter, sent by the Department of Social Welfare asking Election Appeal Board to take decision over Nipun’s allegation.
The HC also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain by February 15 why the decision to cancel the actor's candidacy should not be declared illegal.
On Saturday, the Election Appellate Board decided to remove Zayed from the post of general secretary of the association over allegations that he had resorted to impropriety in the recent election.
Sohanur Rahman Sohan, chairman of the Board, announced the decision on Saturday evening. A day later, the newly elected committee of the Bangladesh Film Artistes' Association led by Ilias Kanchan and Nipun Akter took the oath of office.
Zayed was declared the winner for the general secretary post against Nipun in a close contest.
Nipun moves Supreme Court against HC stay on Zayed's disqualification
Actress Nipun Akter Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against the High Court’s stay on the cancellation of actor Zayed Khan's candidacy in the Bangladesh Film Artistes’ Association election over vote-buying allegations.
Nipun’s lawyer Mostafizur Rahman said her client had filed the appeal at the appellate division of the Supreme Court. "The court is likely to hear the petition in the afternoon,” the barrister said.
On Monday, a division bench of High Court justices Mamnoon Rahman and Khandaker Diliruzzaman stayed the decision of the Election Appellate Board revoking the candidacy of Zayed.
The order was passed following a writ petition filed by Zayed challenging the validity of the decision of the Board.
Besides, the High Court had asked Zayed to continue with his activities as the general secretary, according to advocate Ahsanul Karim.
Also read:HC stays decision cancelling Zayed Khan's candidacy
The High Court had also issued a rule, asking the authorities concerned to explain by February 15 why the decision to cancel the actor's candidacy should not be declared illegal.
On Saturday, the Election Appellate Board decided to remove Zayed from the post of general secretary of the association over allegations that he had resorted to impropriety in the recent election.
Sohanur Rahman Sohan, chairman of the Board, announced the decision on Saturday evening. A day later, the newly elected committee of the Bangladesh Film Artistes' Association led by Ilias Kanchan and Nipun Akter took the oath of office.
The association election was held on January 28.
Also read: Zayed Khan loses gen secy post, Nipun back
Zayed was declared the winner for the general secretary post, after he defeated Nipun in a close contest. It was his third consecutive win.
Judicial activities of SC to remain suspended Sunday
The judicial activities of Appealate and High Court divisions of the Supreme Court will remain suspended on Sunday in honour of late justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan .
High Court division Judge FRM Nazmul Ahasan breathed his last at 6.15 am on Friday at the city’s Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital (BSMMU), said a notification of the High Court division signed by registrar general Md Ali Akbar.
READ: The chief justice meets President Hamid and brief him about SC activities: Bangabhaban
Justice Nazmul Ahasan dies of Covid
Newly appointed justice of the appellate division of the Supreme Court FRM Nazmul Ahasan died of Covid on Friday before he could take his oath.
The former High Court Division judge breathed his last at 6.15am at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical College University (BSMMU), said Muhammad Saifur Rahman, spokesperson for the Supreme Court.
Justice Nazmul had recently tested positive for Covid and got admitted to BSMMU, he said. His first namaz-e-janaza was held on the Supreme Court premises at 11am, said Saifur.
Also read: Mother of BCB Director AJM Nasiruddin passes away
On January 8, President Abdul Hamid appointed Justice Nazmul to the appellate division.
On January 9, other justices, appointed along with FRM Nazmul Ahasan, were administered the oath of office by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
At the reception ceremony, Chief Justice had, however, said that Justice Nazmul would take his oath after recovery.
Also read: TH Khan passes away
The Chief Justice expressed "deep shock and sorrow" at the demise of Justice Nazmul and conveyed his condolences to the judge's family.
SC trial proceedings to go virtual Wednesday
The trial proceedings of both the Appellate Division and the High Court of the Supreme Court will be conducted virtually from Wednesday due to spike in Covid cases in the country.
The Supreme Court administration on Tuesday issued two notifications in this regard being instructed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
According to the notifications, all the judicial proceedings of the Appellate division and the High Court will be conducted virtually under the ‘Use of Information Technology by Courts Act, 2020’ and the Practice Direction issued in this regard from Wednesday.
Also read: 22 lower court judges infected with Covid-19 during training
Earlier in the morning, while conducting a judicial proceeding at the Appellate Division, Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique said, “Citing the worsening Covid-19 situation, it seems that we'll have to conduct trials through virtual courts again. Many cases were disposed of during the virtual court hearing.”
Thirteen judges of the High Court division and a number of judges and staff have been found infected with Covid-19, he added.
Besides, Biswajit Debnath, deputy attorney general, who was present at the court, said, “Our Attorney General and Additional Attorney General were found infected with Covid-19 and a number of lower court judges were also infected with the virus.”
The activities in all courts of the country remained suspended for several days due to the Covid-19 surge.
The Cabinet on May 7, 2020 cleared the draft of an ordinance to pave the way for courts to run trial proceedings through video conferences and other digital means using the information technology.
On May 9, an ordinance was promulgated allowing courts to run trial proceedings through video conferences and availing of other digital facilities. President Abdul Hamid promulgated the ordinance.
Also read: Judicial activities of SC to remain suspended Monday
On May 10, the High Court formed three benches for hearing urgent cases virtually and directed the subordinate courts concerned to hear cases related to emergency bail.
All the judicial activities of benches under the High Court division of the Supreme Court resumed virtually from August 11, 2020.
However, the judicial activities of both the High Court and Supreme Court divisions conducted in physical presence maintaining health protocols from December 1, 2021.
Judicial activities of SC to remain suspended Monday
The judicial activities of both the Appellate Division and the High Court of the Supreme Court will remain suspended on Monday in honour of late Justice Tafazzal Hossain Khan, a former High Court judge and veteran Supreme Court lawyer.
Activities of both the divisions of the Supreme Court will remain suspended today, said Special Officer of the Supreme Court Mohammad Saifur Rahman on Monday.
Read: TH Khan passes away
TH Khan, also a former MP, died at Bangladesh Specialised Hospital in the capital at 4:45 pm.
He, a founding member of BNP, was the vice-chairman of the party at the end of his life.
Supreme Court halts Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine rule for US businesses
The Supreme Court has stopped a major push by the Biden administration to boost the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination rate, a requirement that employees at large businesses get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job.
At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S. The court’s orders Thursday came during a spike in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant.
The court’s conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected and OSHA had estimated that the rule would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months.
Also read: COVID-19 death number in U.S. likely undercounted: expert
“OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” the conservatives wrote in an unsigned opinion.
In dissent, the court’s three liberals argued that it was the court that was overreaching by substituting its judgment for that of health experts. “Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies,” Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a joint dissent.
President Joe Biden said he was “disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law.”
Biden called on businesses to institute their own vaccination requirements, noting that a third of Fortune 100 companies already have done so.
When crafting the OSHA rule, White House officials always anticipated legal challenges — and privately some harbored doubts that it could withstand them. The administration nonetheless still views the rule as a success at already driving millions of people to get vaccinated and encouraging private businesses to implement their own requirements that are unaffected by the legal challenge.
The OSHA regulation had initially been blocked by a federal appeals court in New Orleans, then allowed to take effect by a federal appellate panel in Cincinnati.
Both rules had been challenged by Republican-led states. In addition, business groups attacked the OSHA emergency regulation as too expensive and likely to cause workers to leave their jobs at a time when finding new employees already is difficult.
The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, called the Supreme Court’s decision “a significant victory for employers.”
Also read:Omicron explosion spurs nationwide breakdown of services in USA
The vaccine mandate that the court will allow to be enforced nationwide scraped by on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the liberals to form a majority. The mandate covers virtually all health care workers in the country, applying to providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. It affects 10.4 million workers at 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers. The rule has medical and religious exemptions.
Biden said that decision by the court “will save lives.”
In an unsigned opinion, the court wrote: “The challenges posed by a global pandemic do not allow a federal agency to exercise power that Congress has not conferred upon it. At the same time, such unprecedented circumstances provide no grounds for limiting the exercise of authorities the agency has long been recognized to have.” It said the “latter principle governs” in the healthcare arena.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in dissent that the case was about whether the administration has the authority “to force healthcare workers, by coercing their employers, to undergo a medical procedure they do not want and cannot undo.” He said the administration hadn’t shown convincingly that Congress gave it that authority.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett signed onto Thomas’ opinion. Alito wrote a separate dissent that the other three conservatives also joined.
Decisions by federal appeals courts in New Orleans and St. Louis had blocked the mandate in about half the states. The administration already was taking steps to enforce it elsewhere.
More than 208 million Americans, 62.7% of the population, are fully vaccinated, and more than a third of those have received booster shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All nine justices have gotten booster shots.
The courthouse remains closed to the public, and lawyers and reporters are asked for negative test results before being allowed inside the courtroom for arguments, though vaccinations are not required.
The justices heard arguments on the challenges last week. Their questions then hinted at the split verdict that they issued Thursday.
A separate vaccine mandate for federal contractors, on hold after lower courts blocked it, has not been considered by the Supreme Court.
Dispose of cases over communal disturbances in 90 working days: SC
All the cases relating to disturbing communal harmony in the country have to be disposed of by the lower trial courts in 90 working days accepting the charge sheets , according to a notification issued by the Supreme Court administration on Wednesday.
Read:Supreme Court to conduct judicial activities physically from Wednesday
The notification was issued on the order of the Chief Justice, the administration said.
In the case of failing to resolve the matter within this timeframe, the SC has to be informed of the reasons, it said.