Justice Mohammad Ali Asgar Khan, senior member of Faizee's bench, yesterday, meanwhile, declined to sit with him on the bench and conveyed the decision to Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain.

The chief justice told the Supreme Court lawyers that Faizee would no more be allowed to sit on the bench. He thrust full responsibility of the bench upon Justice Ali Asgar who later conducted the bench yesterday and held hearings.

Two major dailies reported that Justice Faizee, one of the 19 additional judges whose appointment on August 23 drew sharp criticism from different quarters, had tampered with his mark sheet in Muslim Law examinations he sat from Chittagong Law College in 1989. An inquiry committee of Chittagong University unearthed the fraud.

The leaders of Supreme Court Bar Association rushed to court Saturday morning and drew the judges' attention to press reports about the alleged fraud by Faizee.

Meeting the chief justice later on the day, the leaders threatened to boycott Faizee's court if the chief justice did not withdraw the accused judge yesterday. The chief justice assured the Bar leaders of looking into the matter. Later, at an emergency meeting on Saturday afternoon, the Bar executives unanimously decided to boycott the bench of Justice Faizee should he not be withdrawn.

Faizee's name was shown in the High Court cause list (business agenda of the day) hung in the morning and he went to his chamber.

Seeing his name on the cause list, some lawyers led by Bar Secretary Bashir Ahmed met Justice Ali Asgar at his office at 10:15am and informed him of their resolution.

"He told us that he himself doesn't want to sit on the bench with Faizee," Bashir told reporters coming out of Justice Asgar's office.

"When he (Faizee) came to office in the morning, I told him that I will not sit with him on the bench," Bashir quoted Asgar as saying.

Justice Asgar later met the chief justice at his office and expressed the unwillingness, the agitating lawyers told reporters.

Another group of agitating lawyers, meanwhile, gathered in the courtroom to protest Faizee's coming to court. They, however, left, as the bench did not sit until 11:30am.

The Bar, meanwhile, received a notice (signed by a Supreme Court assistant registrar) at 12:20pm that said Justice Ali Asgar Khan would sit on the bench alone from 10:30am yesterday and hold hearing of 10 cases.

Justice Asgar took seat in his court around 12:30pm and held trial for some 10 minutes.

The chief justice, by this time, asked senior Supreme Court lawyers and Bar leaders to meet him at 1:30pm.

Citing Faizee's alleged tampering, senior Supreme Court lawyers, Bar leaders and Bangladesh Bar Council members expressed their unwillingness to attend Faizee's court.

Some lawyers suggested not to allow Faizee to sit on the bench until the issue is resolved, to which the chief justice agreed.

Senior lawyers TH Khan, Attorney General AF Hassan Ariff, Amir-ul Islam, M Zahir, Moinul Hossain, Khan Saifur Rahman, Ozaer Faruq, Abdul Baset Majumder, Subrata Chowdhury, Joynul Abedin, Mahbube Alam and Bashir Ahmed were among them.

Talking to reporters later, Bar President and Vice-president of Bangladesh Bar Council Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud said lawyers had earlier opposed Faizee's appointment.

His records show that he received Bar Council certificate after sitting examinations thrice and submitted a provisional certificate instead of the main LLB certificate during his enrolment.

"We raised objections to appointment of the 19 judges for several reasons."

He said they asked the chief justice during the meeting to drop the judges with poor academic qualifications, including those who had secured third division.

"We also asked the chief justice to drop a judge who was imprisoned by military court for taking bribe," Rokan said without naming the judge.

Talking on Friday's detention of one of the 19 judges for urinating on the wall of the residence of an ambassador, the Bar president said they raised the issue in the meeting with the chief justice, who said he would look into the matter.

Addressing a rally organised by Ainjibi Samannoy Parishad in the afternoon, lawyers demanded resignation of all involved in the process of appointment of the 19 judges.

Barrister Amir-ul Islam chaired the rally organised to protest indiscriminate killings by the Rapid Action Battalion and poor state of the judiciary.