The Supreme Court Bar Association's president, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, on Tuesday said that the situation in the Supreme Court might become volatile if the 13 lawyers, accused of attacking the police, are denied bail.
The police have lodged two cases against the pro-BNP lawyers, accusing them of assaulting the police and obstructing them from discharging their duty during a scuffle with pro-government lawyers in a courtroom of the High Court on August 2.
Mahbub also urged the attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, not to take a hard line as the accused lawyers are the members of the bar, and requested him to ensure that they would not be put in jail for the sake of the stability of the apex court.
Mahbubey Alam told reporters that the general lawyers would not take the side of the accused lawyers.
He also alleged that the SCBA's president had tried to intimidate the High Court to obtain bail for the accused lawyers by saying that the situation in the court would become uncontrollable if they were taken to prison.
'Mahbub's threat of an unstable situation is tantamount to contempt of the court,' Mahbubey added.
In his briefing at his office, Khandker Mahbub said, 'We have seen that the High Court grants bail in many cases of similar nature, but we fear that in our case the accused lawyers may not be granted anticipatory bail.'
'If they (lawyers) are denied bail, the situation in the Supreme Court will become volatile and go beyond the control of our leadership,' Mahbub added.
He also said that the SCBA expects the contempt of court rule for the scuffle in their courtroom, issued to the 13 accused lawyers by the bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore, to be settled after the lawyers' unconditional apology to the judges.
Mahbub also said that he, along with some senior lawyers, met Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain to apprise him of the situation, and sought his intervention to resolve the crisis by calling five lawyers from both the sides.
'But the chief justice didn't assure us whether would or not he would take such an initiative,' Mahbub added.
He also said that as per the chief justice's earlier proposal, the SCBA tried hard to resolve the crisis by sitting with the pro-AL lawyers, but the move failed to bear fruit as they stayed away.
In the morning, the bench of Justice Mohammad Anwarul Haque and AKM Zahirul Haque deferred their decision on the bail petition to Wednesday as Khandker Mahbub sought time for an out-of-court settlement.
Khandker Mahbub appealed for deferral of the date till Thursday, saying that senior lawyers are trying to reach a compromise over the issue.
The court, however, fixed Wednesday for passing its order on the bail petitions as Mahbubey Alam vehemently opposed the prayer for more time.
On Monday, the court shifted the date to August 9 following another time prayer from the petitioners.
Shahbagh police filed two cases against the accused lawyers for two separate incidents on August 2 and 4. They were charge with assaulting the police and preventing them from carrying out their duty in the Supreme Court's premises.
The accused lawyers are Mohammad Ali, Golam Mohammad Chowdhury Alam, ABM Waliur Rahman Khan, Gazi Kamrul Islam Sajal, Shahiduzzaman, Mirza Al Mahmud, Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Abdullah Al Mahmud, MU Ahmed, Md Ashrafuzzaman Khan, Golam Nobi and Mahmudul Islam Swapan.
Three pro-BNP lawyers — Syeda Asifa Papya MP, Tauhidul Islam and Abu Bakar Siddque — were arrested on August 3.
Abu Bakar was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the two incidents.
Source : New Age
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