High Court division justice Rezaul Hasan submits resignation letter

Justice Md Rezaul Hasan of the High Court division of the Supreme Court has submitted his resignation letter to the President citing personal reasons. The resignation letter was sent to the President yesterday Monday from the Supreme Court administration.

When asked, Supreme Court Registrar General Muhammad Habibur Rahman Siddiqi told Prothom Alo today Tuesday that Justice Rezaul Hasan submitted his resignation yesterday citing personal reasons. He submitted the resignation letter to the President through the Chief Justice. According to the rules, the resignation letter was sent to the President yesterday. Proceedings of the Supreme Judicial Council against Justice Rezaul were ongoing.

If allegations arise against a judge of incapacity to perform duties or serious misconduct, action can be taken through an investigation by the Supreme Judicial Council. The council is formed with the Chief Justice and the next two senior judges.

According to relevant sources, an application was submitted to refer Justice Rezaul Hasan to the Supreme Judicial Council for investigation over allegations including biased conduct in the proceedings of two company cases in 2010 and 2011, as well as acquiring assets through corruption. The application was submitted on 24 November last year to the Registrar General of the Supreme Court by Shah Group Chairman KM Mozibul Haque.

In response to this complaint, Justice Rezaul Hasan submitted a written statement to the Supreme Judicial Council on 10 December, according to a relevant source. The source also said that most recently, on 29 March, the justice submitted an application to the Supreme Judicial Council.

The source claimed that among the two cases, an appeal was filed in one case in the Appellate Division, while no appeal was filed in the other. Following the High Court order, in one case, through an application filed in the Appellate Division, the applicant’s (Mozibul Haque’s) wife received relief in 2017.

According to the source, in the application submitted to the Supreme Judicial Council on March 29, Justice Rezaul Hasan stated that if there were any allegations against him, the complainant could have filed them with the council in 2017. The application also mentioned that the complaint was not maintainable. However, a source confirmed that the application was returned. After that, the justice submitted his resignation letter on 29 March.

Sources related to the judiciary claim that formal proceedings had not yet begun in the Supreme Judicial Council against the mentioned justice.

According to information on the Supreme Court website, after obtaining LLB (honours) and LLM degrees from the University of Dhaka, Rezaul Hasan was enrolled as a lawyer of the district court in 1985. He was enrolled as a lawyer of the High Court division in 1989 and of the Supreme Court in 2004. He was appointed as an additional judge of the High Court Division on 30 June, 2009, and was appointed as a judge of the High Court Division on 6 June, 2011.