SCBA President Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud said the CJ had told him that 'some of the judges were not invited properly' and that is why he (CJ) refrained from attending the party.

Rokanuddin told reporters that they had invited the CJ and other judges in an appropriate manner, as they did in previous years.

He described the absence as a deliberate act and said, "It has shaken the very relations between the bar and the bench, and the damage that has been done is irreparable."

Communications Minister Barrister Nazmul Huda and State Minister for Law Barrister Shahjahan Omar went to the party. But on learning that the CJ would not come to the party, they left before the luncheon.

Besides, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed did not attend the party.

However, some 10 sitting judges of HC division bench, former president Abdur Rahman Biswas, former chief of caretaker government former chief justice Latifur Rahman and former chief justices Mahmudul Amin Chowdhury and KM Hassan joined the luncheon.

The annual SCBA break-up party, where some 80 judges and 3,500 SCBA members were invited, began with lunch at around 1:30pm. But shortly afterwards, the SCBA president came to know that judges were holding a meeting at Chief Justice's Office (CJO). As whispers were rife that the CJ would skip the programme, Rokanuddin, along with SCBA Secretary Bashir Ahmed, and Advocate Joynal Abedin, a leader of pro-government lawyers, rushed to the CJO. But the CJ declined the bar president's request to join the party.

"How can I attend the party or ask the judges to do so when some judges were not invited respectfully?" Rokanuddin quoted the CJ as saying.

The SCBA president told the reporters that the association officials themselves took invitations to the judges as they did in the past. "I myself went to invite the Chief Justice," he said adding, "We might have made some mistakes as the programme was arranged in a very short time. But everybody should accept those with an open mind," he said adding, "For our executive members, time was too little to invite all the judges in person."

Bashir, meanwhile, said they sent invitations to some judges in the morning yesterday after they had failed to send those by Monday night.

Rokanuddin said he did not know the rationale behind the decision of the CJ and many other judges.

He observed that the SCBA's move against the appointment of 19 judges might have something to do with the absence. "We've even invited those 19 judges," he added.