Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique

Who is going to be the next chief justice, now people must be very curious about, after the president Abdul Hamid accepted the resignation letter from Surendra Kumar Sinha. The appointment of the 22nd chief justice may take some time, hence, Md Abdul Wahhab Miah, who is now acting of the post, may continue, Bengali daily Prothom Alo quoted a law ministry official. The newspaper quoted Law Minister Anisul Haq as saying Wahhab would continue until the president appoints someone else as the chief justice. It is the president’s jurisdiction to appoint the chief justice. The law minister said he (Wahhab) would continue if the president takes even an year to appoint someone in the post. However, differing with the suggestion made by the law minister in this regard, the former law minister Shafique Ahmed made a different suggestion to that of Anisul Haque, raising a question the chief justice would administer oath taking of the other justices if he himself he didn’t take oath himself. So, the senior most justice who has taken the charge temporarily as acting can’t deliver full responsibilities of the chief justice in the long term, Shafique said. Attorney General Mahbube Alam too could not suggest when the next chief justice might be appointed, citing there is nothing concretely suggested in the constitution regarding how many days the president would have to make the appointment within.
The 21st chief justice SK Sinha went on a month leave on October 13 amid uproar over the supreme court verdict upholding the cancellation of the sixteenth amendment of the constitution.The amendment gave back the parliament the power to impeach justices. Of the five justices of the appeal division of the Supreme Court, acting chief justice Wahhab Miah is the senior-most, while the others are Syed Mahmud Hossain, Md Iman Ali, Hassan Fayez Siddiqui and Mirza Hussain Haider. The president may appoint anyone of them if he wishes.