President Abdul Hamid has asked the Supreme Court to ease the suffering of litigants by using information technology (IT). A delegation of judges led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique submitted the Supreme Court's annual report of 2021 at Bangabhaban Wednesday, President's Press Secretary Joynal Abedin told UNB. Read: President urges Rotary to work for public welfare During the meeting, the chief justice said: "This year the Supreme Court will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Supreme Court."

Twelve judges of the Appellate Division and the High Court have been infected with Covid-19. Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique said when court proceedings started on Monday morning. Trial proceedings in many important benches have been suspended due to surge of Covid cases, said the Chief Justice. “If one of a double bench gets infected, the trial of that bench remains suspended.” Read: Bangladesh gets another 4 mn doses of COVID-19 vaccine from US “In this case, if you do not cooperate, then it becomes difficult for us. Otherwise, we will have to reintroduce virtual judicial proceedings,” he added. Amid a steady rise in Covid infections, Bangladesh reported two more Covid-linked deaths with 1,680 new infections in 24 hours till Sunday morning. The new figures took the country’s total death toll to 29,140 while caseload to 19,65,173, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Read: Health Minister concerned over uptick in Covid, urges return to protocols The daily-case positivity rate jumped to 15.66 per cent from Saturday’s 15.07 per cent as 10,778 samples were tested during the period, said the DGHS. The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.48 per cent. The recovery rate declined to 97.02 per cent from Saturday’s 97.10 per cent as 169 patients recovered during this period.

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.

Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and his wife Dalia Firoz have been hospitalised after testing positive for Covid-19. The Chief Justice was admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) on Wednesday night, its Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed said on Thursday. Read: SC trial proceedings to go virtual Wednesday "The top judge's wife was admitted to the same hospital on Tuesday," he said, adding that "both are doing well". "A medical board has been constituted that will take a call on their treatment Thursday noon." However, when contacted, the special officer of the Supreme Court, Mohammad Saifur Rahman, refused to divulge any details. The Registrar General, on the other hand, couldn’t be contacted. On Tuesday, the Chief Justice instructed that the proceedings of both the Appellate Division and the High Court be conducted virtually from Wednesday due to a spike in Covid cases across the country. Read:Covid-19 in Bangladesh: CJ hints at reverting to virtual trial proceedings Thirteen judges of the High Court division and a number of other judges and staff were found infected with Covid-19, said the Chief Justice during a judicial proceeding at the Appellate Division the same day.

The Appellate Division on Monday ruled that the two children of Bangladesh-born US citizen Imran Sharif and Japanese mother Nakano Erico will stay with their mother till January 23. A three-member full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, passed the order following a petition filed by Erico challenging a High Court order. The court said their father Imran Sharif, can visit his daughters between 9am and 9pm every day during this period. Read: SC: 2 Japan-born girls to stay with Japanese mother for 2 days Advocate Ahsanul Karim and Advocate Shishir Monir appeared for Erico while Lawyer Fawzia Karim Firoze for Imran Sharif. On November 21, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman ruled that the Japan-born daughters of Imran and Erico will stay with their father. However, the mother can exclusively meet the daughters, aged 11 and 10, three times a year for 10 days at a time and Imran, the father, will bear her travel and accommodation expenses, said the court. If Erico wants to meet her children beyond the court-prescribed time she has to do it at her own expenses, the court said. Imran was also instructed to allow the children to talk to their mother on video calls twice a month on holidays. Following the writ petition, the High Court also ordered Imran to give Tk 10 lakh to Erico for the expenses she incurred to travel to Dhaka and stay here for seven days. The concerned social service officer was directed to continue monitoring the development regarding the children and submit a report to the Registrar of the High Court on the issue of children every three months. However, the high court rejected the writ petition filed by Imran seeking order to produce their third and youngest daughter, who is in Japan. After 12 years of marriage, on January 18, Erico, a physician, appealed for divorce from Engineer Imran Sharif over marital dispute. On January 28, 2021 she also filed a case with a Tokyo family court for custody of their three children. Read: HC allows two girls to stay with Bangladeshi father in custodial battle with Japanese mother But on February 21, Imran returned to Bangladesh with the first two girls fom Japan. After that a Japanese court passed a verdict giving the children under their mother’s custody. On August 19, Erico filed a writ petition before the High Court here seeking custody of the two girls.