Khasruzzaman, left, kicks the door of Chief Justice's Office on November 30, 2006. Inset, Ruhul Quddus Babu, a murder accused. The two have been appointed High Court judges on April 11. File Photo

Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim has decided not to administer oaths of two newly appointed High Court judges against the backdrop of protest from a section of Supreme Court Bar Association leaders including its president and secretary.
But he will administer oaths of 15 other newly appointed HC judges at 10:00am today at the Judges' Lounge of the Supreme Court, Additional Registrar Atowar Rahman told The Daily Star last evening.
Atowar said the chief justice would not administer oaths to Ruhul Quddus Babu and Md Khasruzzaman, but he could not specify the reason for the decision.
President Zillur Rahman appointed 17 new judges to the HC on April 11 for two years. The newly elected pro-BNP-Jamaat leaders of the SCBA have been strongly protesting appointments of Ruhul Quddus and Khasruzzaman, terming them controversial for their roles in the past.
Many senior lawyers of the Supreme Court told The Daily Star that they could not recall if any chief justice has ever made such decision.
"It [the CJ's decision] is unprecedented," said senior lawyer of the SC barrister Rokan Uddin Mahmud.
The CJ's decision must embarrass the government heavily, a number of senior lawyers observed.
The law minister did not return from his trip abroad as of last evening and State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam last evening declined to make any comment on the CJ's decision.
Meanwhile, SCBA President Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, who met the chief justice following the judges' appointment and asked him not to administer oath of the two judges, expressed his happiness at the decision.
"This decision will brighten the image of the judiciary," he said, expressing hope that the government would not appoint such controversial persons in future.
While talking to The Daily Star, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, however, said, "I hope the chief justice will administer oath to the two judges in near future."
SCBA President Mahbub Hossain, elected from the pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers' panel, told reporters at a press conference on April 11 that lawyers would not accept appointment of any controversial person as HC judge.
Ruhul Quddus was an accused in a murder case while there is allegation against Khasruzzaman of kicking on the door of the chief justice on November 30, 2006, Mahbub said yesterday.
Some pro-BNP lawyers including the SCBA president met the chief justice at his Supreme Court office yesterday and urged him again not to administer oath to any controversial person as HC judge.
At a meeting on April 13, the pro-BNP-Jamaat leaders of SCBA decided not to accord felicitation to Ruhul Quddus and Khasruzzaman.
The newly appointed judges are SC Registrar Md Shawkat Hossain, Additional Attorney General AKM Zahirul Hoque, district and sessions judges of Dhaka Krishna Debnath and ANM Bashir Ullah, deputy attorneys general FRM Nazmul Ahsan and Md Khasruzzaman, former deputy attorney general JBM Hasan, and SC lawyers M Faruk, Abdur Rob, Kazi Reza-Ul Huq, Md Abu Zafar Siddiqui, Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain, Habibul Gani, Md Ruhul Quddus Babu, Gobinda Chandra Tagore, Sheikh Hasan Arif and Jahangir Hossain Selim.
Their appointment will take effect from the day of their taking oath.
After assuming power, the Awami League-led grand alliance has so far appointed 36 judges to the HC.
Meanwhile, two of the newly appointed judges requesting anonymity told The Daily Star last night that none of the 17 new judges has got any letter of the oath-taking ceremony.
Earlier, the then chief justices Mainur Reza Chowdhury and Syed JR Mudassir Husain administered oaths to a number of judges although the SCBA urged the CJs not to as the judges were "controversial" and "less qualified".
Former SCBA president Rokan Uddin Mahmud yesterday told The Daily Star that he along with senior lawyers had requested the two former chief justices in 2003 and 2004 not to administer oath to the controversial persons as judges.
He said many judges were appointed during the rule of the BNP-Jamaat alliance on political consideration although they were not qualified enough.
Syed Shahidur Rahman, one of these judges, had already lost his job after the Supreme Judicial Council found him guilty of misconduct, Rokan said.
"Justices Mainur Reza Chowdhury and Syed JR Mudassir Husain told us that they were constitutionally bound to administer oaths to judges appointed by the president," Rokan Uddin said.