Dhaka: Law Minister Anisul Huq on Sunday expects that the gazette notification of disciplinary rules and code of conduct for lower court judges will be issued by next week.

"We'll be able to finalize the draft of the rules in a meeting to be held on Thursday (July 20) with the chief justice and present it to the president next week. After that, a gazette notification will be issued in this regard," he said.

The minister was talking to reporters after a meeting with Chief Justice SK Sinha in his office in the Supreme Court over the discipline and conduct rules.

Anisul said the apex court is likely to hear the rules on Sunday (July 23) after the gazette is issued.

The hearing on a petition over the rules, which were supposed to be heard by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today (Sunday), has been fixed for tomorrow.

On July 2, the Appellate Division had extended the deadline for the gazette notification of the rules to be issued by 2 more weeks.

On December 12 last year, the court had asked the authorities concerned to issue the gazette by January 15. The deadline has been extended several times.