HC recommends 16 points to JS for building corruption-free country
Gulam Rabbani :
In the full text of a verdict the High Court has made 16 recommendations to the Jatiya Sangsad or the National Parliament with the aim of building a corruption-free Bangladesh.
Formation of an independent cadre service for recruitment of the officials for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is among the recommendations.
The HC bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal gave the opinions in the verdict delivered after hearing two criminal appeal petitions filed by Md Kamruzzamn Sarkar and Md Abdur Rahim against their jail sentence. The 78-page full judgment has been published on the Supreme Court’s website on Wednesday, while the short verdict was pronounced on December 14 in 2022.
The High Court also expressed the hope that Bangladesh will be able to stand holding its head high in the world as a corruption-free state within the next 10 years, if effective steps are taken in line with the suggestions.
The High Court recommended that ACC officials should be appointed through the same process and organization, under which process and organization (Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission) judges are appointed to the subordinate courts.
It also suggested constituting a separate and independent recruitment board for the appointment of the other ACC employees.
In the full text of the verdict, the HC suggested amending the relevant laws, including the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), so that the ACC officials submit their wealth statements to the commission and those are made public on a regular basis.
In another suggestion the HC asked to select the Chairman of the ACC from among the retired judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, and the members of the ACC from among the retired judges of the High Court Division.
The HC asked to constitute separate prosecution panels of the ACC for higher judiciary and the subordinate courts comprising honest, skilled and experienced lawyers. It also opines to reconstitute the panel every three years.
It suggested establishing an independent and impartial board for the nomination of lawyers to the prosecution panels. It also suggested the provision of commensurate honorarium and other support for lawyers included in the prosecution panel.
The HC in the full text of the judgement also asked the Supreme Court Registrar General to send the judgement to the Members of Parliament, the Chairman of Bangladesh Law Commission and the judges of the subordinate courts across the country through email.
In the verdict, the High Court allowed the appeal petitions filed by Md Kamruzzamn Sarkar and Md Abdur Rahim. It also acquitted the appellants from the sentences of five years imprisonment and fine of Tk 25,000 given by a trial court in 2020 in a case filed on charge of taking bribe by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
