"I'll not make any comment on the matter since the Chief Justice is looking into it," Moudud told reporters at his office yesterday.

The Chief Justice Syed J R Mudassir Husain on Sunday withdrew Faizee from the bench in face of the allegation and lawyers' threat to boycott his court. He also thrust full responsibility of the bench upon Justice Ali Asgar Khan, Faizee's senior judge in the bench, after Asgar declined to sit with him in the court.

The minister, however, questioned the role of Bangladesh Bar Council for not noticing the matter earlier.

"I've heard he (Faizee) was a junior of the present president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). Why wasn't it (certificate tampering) noticed that time?" Moudud said.

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

An inquiry committee of Chittagong University unearthed the fraud.

SCBA on Monday sent to the chief justice some documents in support of the allegations of tampering with the examination results by Faizee following Chief Justice's query made in a meeting with the SCBA leaders and senior lawyers on Saturday.