After brawls, the Chuadanga lawyers decaled boycott to the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge-1 bazlur Rahman.
Earlier on Thursday, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge-1 was vandalized over a dispute between court employees and lawyers centering appointment of a new Nazir removing old one in the District Judge’s Court.
Following the incident, an emergency meeting of the District Bar Association decided to boycott the court indefinitely and demanded the removal of Additional District and Sessions Judge-1 (who is working as acting District Judge) Bazlur Rahman and two other employees.
The incident took place at noon on Thursday (March 18).
According to the details of the incident, Chuadanga District and Sessions Judge Reza Md. Alamgir Hasan went on retirement leave on March 15. At the end of the day, he, in a transfer order, removed the present Nazir Masuduzzaman and issued an order appointing Nurul Haque, a bench assistant of the same court as the Nazir.
When the new Nazir Nurul Haque went to take charge at around 11:am on Thursday, a part of the court staff was obstructed him. This part claims this appointment was not made legally. This created a stalemate at the court.
To resolve the issue, Nurul Haque along with some lawyers employees including Advocate Alamgir Hossain, President of the District Bar Association, went to Judge Bazlur Rahman at around 12 noon. Judge Bazlur Rahman also expressed doubts over the transfer and new appointment orders and said he was unable to comply ‘due to doubt.
Then the trouble started. Employees following Nurul Haque started making noise there. At this time the court proceedings were stopped. At one stage, someone vandalized a table in the office of the judge. Seeing the disturbance, all the employees of the court rushed to protest and a chase ensued between the two sides.
Upon receiving the news, the police reached the spot and took the situation under control.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) Jahangir Alam said the incident was brought under control. He said he saw a table vandalised there.
Additional police have been deployed to keep the court environment calm, he said.
In this regard, Nazir Masuduzzaman claimed that the appointment order of Nurul Haque was fake. He caused a commotion in the court with some employees and lawyers. And when this was done he was working at his desk in court.
Masuduzzaman further claimed that Nurul Haque came with 10-15 lawyers including Advocate Alamgir Hossain, President of the Bar Association and pressured Judge Bazlur Rahman to comply with the order. When he refused to accept the order as it was not appropriate, the lawyers got excited and vandalised the table.
Nazir Masuduzzaman alleged that District and Sessions Judge Reza Md. Alamgir Hasan had spent a total of Tk. 11.70 lakh during his tenure. When he demanded the money back, he (judge) got angry and threatened to transfer him.
He alleged that district judge removed him and appointed Nurul Haque in mid-night.
Besides, Nurul Haque claimed that his appointment order was made on very legal way what a judge can do it.
Advocate Alamgir Hossain, president of the District Bar Association alleged that some dishonest and bribe-takers of the court are making false allegations against us (lawyers)
“When we approached the Judge about the appointment of a new Nazir, the staff attacked us with sticks in a pre-planned manner. Our 4-5 lawyers were injured,” he said.
He added that after the incident, an emergency meeting of the District Bar Association decided to boycott the court indefinitely. The meeting also demanded the removal of Judge Bazlur Rahman, Nazir Masuduzzaman and Bench Assistant Zahurul Islam.
