Dhaka: The Supreme Court on Thursday released the full text of its verdict disposing of the long-pending dispute over the impugned state-level hierarchy -- Warrant of Precedence (WoP), giving district judges the status of government secretaries. 

The copy of the 62-page full verdict was released after all five members of the Appellate Division bench concerned signed it.

On January 11, 2015, the Appellate Division disposed of the appeal petition filed by the government challenging the HC order that declared the exiting Warrant of Precedence illegal.

A five-member Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then Chief Justice M Muzammel Hossain, passed the order with expunction, modification, observation and findings.

The President and the Prime Minister hold the 1st and 2nd position respectively, according to the Warrant of Precedence.

According to the SC observation, the rank of Chief Justice will be equivalent to that of the Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad.

The Appellate Division judges will be upgraded to the position of the full minister instead of the state minister while judges of the High Court get the status of the state minister.

Since the Attorney General, the chief government law officer, holds the constitutional post, his position will be above all secretaries of the Republic while the position of the Member of Parliament (MP) will be above the Cabinet Secretary, the chiefs of the three services and Principal Secretary.

As the district judges head the subordinate courts, their position will be the upgraded one equivalent to Secretary of the Republic.

Similarly, additional district judge will hold the position next to the district judges.

In 2011, the cabinet secretary, on behalf of the government, filed the appeal against HC verdict delivered on February 4, 2010 that declared illegal the Warrant of Precedence, which was formulated in 1986 and revised in 2008 and ordered reshuffling the state hierarchy with constitutional post-holders and district judges placed above the military chiefs.

M Ataur Rahman, a former secretary general of Bangladesh Judicial Service Association, filed the public interest litigation writ petition on December 14, 2006 challenging the validity of the revised WoP.