Dissecting Quasi-Legislative Judicial Directives of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh

Abstract

This chapter analyses some decisions of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (SC) in which it has passed directives to the Parliament or executive for making a law or making specific changes to the law which may be termed as ‘quasi-legislative directives’. This chapter would argue that while the Constitution of Bangladesh allows judicial review and the directives are purportedly issued in exercise of that power; save in very limited cases, the doctrinal validity of the exercise is dubious because it stretches the judicial review too far. And it moves into the terrain which should be the domain of the Parliament and executive. It will demonstrate that while some of these directives may have been necessary, some others have been either at best not indispensable or at worst problematic. This paper demonstrates how the SC directives may be open to criticisms and how it may give rise to some practical challenges both for the executive and the court.

Keywords: Supreme Court, Bangladesh, Quasi-Legislative