Reclaiming the Autonomy of the Subordinate Judiciary: Administrative Dualism, Executive Encroachment, and Judicial Independence in Bangladesh
Main Article Content
Abstract
Purpose: This paper explains why constitutional and judicial guarantees failed, for five decades, to secure institutional autonomy for Bangladesh’s subordinate judiciary, and evaluates the High Court Division’s 2025 judgment in Mohammad Saddam Hossen v. Bangladesh, which restored the 1972 text of Article 116.
Design/methodology/approach: The study applies doctrinal, historical-legal and comparative analysis to the constitutional amendments of 1975–2011, leading judgments, the full 2025 judgment, the 2017 Disciplinary Rules, and the 2025 Secretariat Ordinance and its 2026 repeal, organised through an original “administrative conduit” framework.
Findings: Executive control survived Masdar Hossain (1999) because the Ministry retained three operational levers: personnel files, gazette notification and budgetary sanction. The 2025 judgment invalidated the relevant Fourth and Fifteenth Amendment provisions on procedural and basic-structure grounds, revived the 1972 Article 116, voided the 2017 Rules and ordered a Supreme Court Secretariat. Parliament dissolved the Secretariat by statute in April 2026, and the Appellate Division stayed the judgment in June 2026, showing that statutory autonomy is readily reversible.
Research limitations/implications: The study is doctrinal and uses no primary empirical data; the State’s appeal is pending.
Practical implications: Durable autonomy requires constitutional entrenchment combined with a self-executing Secretariat holding gazetting authority, a block grant charged on the Consolidated Fund and accountable peer-led discipline.
Originality/value: This is among the first scholarly analyses of the full 2025 judgment and its aftermath, and it offers a transferable explanation of non-compliance with apex-court rulings on judicial independence.
Article Details
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