A lower court judge in Bogura has been removed from there and attached to the law ministry for forcing the parents of two school students to apologize to her by touching feet. She is Begum Rubaiya Yeasmin, Additional District and Sessions Judge of Bogura.
The government took the decision on Thursday (March 23) in consultation with Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
A notification has already been issued in this regard by the Law and Justice Division of the law ministry
Md Golam Sarwar, secretary of the Law and Justice Division; told the media that the ministry has received an allegation from its own capacity and media reports over the misconduct with guardians by Rubaiya Yeasmin, Then the step was taken against the judge.
According to the notification, Rubaiya Yeasmin cannot carry out judicial functions or any work at the ministry though she will get salary and other relevant benefits.
Supreme Court Registrar General Md Golam Rabbani told the media that the law ministry on Thursday sent a letter to the Supreme Court for a decision from the chief justice after receiving the allegation against Rubaiya Yeasmin. Later, the lower court judge has been withdrawn from Bogura following an instruction from the chief justice.
It was reported that Rubaiya Yeasmin forced the mothers of two students of Bogura Government Girls’ High School to touch her feet and beg forgiveness for allegedly making a derogatory comment about her.
It is known that the students of the school regularly sweep and clean their classrooms by rotation.
A few days ago, the daughter of Begum Rubaiya Yasmin enrolled at the school under a government quota. She studies in Class Eight of the school.
The daughter of the judge was supposed to sweep the classroom on Monday along with three other students. But as she is the judge’s daughter, she refused to do it. She had an argument with her classmates about this.
As she refused to sweep the classroom on Monday last, the other three students also declined to do the work in protest. Later in the night, the judge’s girl reportedly wrote a post on Facebook stating that since she is the daughter of a judge, she is above the rules. She also described her classmates as slum girls.
Four female students protested her comment. Three of her classmates took screenshots of the Facebook post and shared them in their Facebook group.
Against this backdrop, the judge went to the school on Tuesday (March 21) and asked head teacher Rabeya Khatun to call the students and their parents.
Four students and their parents came to the headmistress’s room and the judge threatened to file case under the Digital Security Act against them, claiming that they wrote ‘derogatory words’ on Facebook insulting her and her daughter.
The judge also forced the mothers of two students to touch her feet and beg pardon for ‘insulting’ her by their daughters on Facebook.
However, angry students of the Bogura Govt Girls’ High School staged a demonstration on Tuesday afternoon protesting the insult of the mothers of two students as well as misconduct carried out by judge Rubaiya Yeasmin.
Following the demonstration, a three-member probe committee was formed, led by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Education and ICT) of Bogura Nilufa Yasmin, to investigate the matter.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Bogura Saiful Islam formed the committee on Tuesday night after a discussion with protesting students and parents. Alongside the DC, Additional Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Helena Akhtar also visited the school at the time.
