''Secretary, Ministry of Finance v Masdar Hossain (1999) 52 DLR (AD) 82'' is a landmark case decided by the Appellate Division of the

Supreme Court of Bangladesh Supreme Court of Bangladesh () is the highest court of law in the country. It is composed of the High Court Division, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, High Court Division and the Appellate Division, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Appellate Division, ...

concerning the

separation of powers The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state (polity), state power (usually Legislature#Legislation, law-making, adjudication, and Executive (government)#Function, execution) and requires these operat ...

. It is popularly known as the ''Masdar Hossain case''.

Facts

In 1995, a writ petition was filed by Masdar Hossain, a district judge, on behalf of 441 other judges of the subordinate judiciary. The petition put forward the following points:- *Including the judicial service under the

executive branch The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

's control was

ultra vires ('beyond the powers') is a Latin phrase used in law to describe an act that requires legal authority but is done without it. Its opposite, an act done under proper authority, is ('within the powers'). Acts that are may equivalently be termed ...

. *Chapter II of Part VI of the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

ensured lower courts were separate from the executive. *Judges of lower courts could not be subject to an Administrative Tribunal of the executive. The

High Court Division The High Court Division, Supreme Court of Bangladesh (), popularly known as High Court, is one of the two divisions of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, the other division being the Bangladesh Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Appellate Division. ...

ruled in favor of the petition with a 12-point directive in 1997. The government appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

Judgment

In 1999, the Appellate Division reversed parts of the High Court Division's ruling but upheld the 12-point directive. It issued a further 12-point directive. The Appellate Division called for the formation of an independent judicial commission to select judiciary members, deal with matters of judicial salaries, and manage discipline. The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution provided a framework for

judicial independence Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...

Significance

The verdict led to the formation of the

Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission is an independent judicial commission that is responsible for the recruitment and examination of judges and judicial magistrates of the subordinate judiciary in Bangladesh and is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh ...

. It was implemented by Chief Advisor

Fakhruddin Ahmed Fakhruddin Ahmed (; born 1 May 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist, civil servant, and a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank. He also served as the 4th Chief Adviser of Caretaker government of Bangladesh. On 12 Janu ...

during the caretaker administration in 2007.

References

{{reflist 1999 in case law Bangladeshi constitutional case law Trials in Bangladesh

Facts

Judgment

Significance

See also

References