Dhaka: Politicians should shun making blanket statements that may destroy public faith on judiciary, observed Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Monday.

Chief Justice SK Sinha said this during the hearing on a leave to appeal petition, filed earlier on February 15 by the lawyers of BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

The Chief Justice said to Mirza Fakhrul that judiciary is not a part of the government, but of a state. If anyone wants to obey constitution, he/she must conform to the judiciary. If you [Fakhrul] made derogatory remarks where will the general people go, asked the CJ.  

A five member bench led by Chief Justice SK Sinha accepted Mirza Fakhrul’s statement on making comments on judiciary in a Sylhet discussion.

Fakhrul claimed that two national newspapers’ reports on the programme did not reflect what he had exactly said. The newspapers also published correction following the day. The court accepted the arguments.

On 18 February, a SK Sinha-led bench asked Fakhrul to explain what he had said about the judicial system.

Fakhrul on 7 February in a meeting in Sylhet said government was trying to control the judiciary. All democratic institutions were destroyed in a planned way. There was no democracy, even no freedom of judiciary, he added.