Bangladesh Law Commission yet to decide on 49 laws

Firoz Al Mamun
The government sent 49 drafts of constitutionally obligatory laws to the Law Commission for recommendations six months ago but the commission is yet to respond.
Prof. Dr M Shah Alam, chairman of the commission, said they decided to give recommendations on the draft laws after getting the reprinted constitution.
“The government is reprinting the constitution including and excluding many provisions. A parliamentary standing committee is also examining it,” said Shah Alam.
He said the commission felt the necessity to enact three laws primarily on the specific qualifications of the High Court judges, powers of parliamentary standing committee and balance of power between the president and the chief adviser during the caretaker government.
The constitution made it obligatory for the government to enact some laws to run the state smoothly and avoid unwarranted political disputes. But no government over the last four decades took initiatives to enact the laws.
“It is difficult to establish constitutional rule completely without these laws,” said Suranjit Sengupta, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry.
A parliamentary panel observed that as per the constitution some laws are needed to be enacted on the privileges of lawmakers, jurisdiction of parliamentary standing committees [especially in case of enforcing the attendance of witnesses and interrogating them on oath and compelling the production of documents], qualifications of judges of the Supreme Court and advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and qualifications of election commissioners.
As per a decision taken by the legislative panel on law, justice and parliam-entary affairs in May last year, the government sent a list of constitutional oblig-atory laws to the Law Commission for scrutiny.
The parliamentary panel also asked the law ministry to take necessary measures to comply with the provisions of the constitution to which a total of 14 amendments were made after it was adopted on November 4, 1972.
As there is no specified law on the appointment of election commissioners, the quasi-judicial Election Commission requested the government to enact a law to this end. The EC had earlier prepared a draft outlining the criteria for appointment of future election commis-sioners.
Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid said a constitutionally obligatory law on appointment of an ombudsman was passed in 1980 but it did not come into effect.
About the tenure of the caretaker government, he said the government should make law clarifying that the CG will resign or hand over power to the president in absence of an elected PM if it fails to hold poll within 90 days.
Apart from these, the SC should make rules as stated by Article 107 of the constitution to regulate practice and procedure of the High Court Division and the Appellate Division.
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