Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain yesterday issued a stay order on the proceedings of writ petitions on the legality of President Iajuddin Ahmed becoming the chief adviser and his "unilateral" decisions.

"The chief justice has the power to intervene at any stage of a case. In my 20 years as a lawyer and 20 years as a judge, I am not aware of any chief justice who, despite having the authority to do so, exercised his authority when there was only the ruling left to be delivered," Kamal said.

Kamal told the BBC last night that according to the constitution the chief justice has the authority to constitute or reconstitute a bench. So, theoretically, he has the power. But it depends weather he used the power in a bona fide or a mala fide manner.

When asked to comment on yesterday's allegations made by the lawyers of the High Court that the chief justice intervened in the last stages of the judicial process, Kamal said he has not seen such incident in his 40 years of experience.

Regarding the attorney general (AG) forwarding the chief justice's order to the bench as he did yesterday, Kamal said, "This is not a part of his job. If it did happen, then I will have to say that I have never seen or heard of something like that happen before."

"When a bench is constituted or dissolved, a superintendent of an High Court division forwards the order to the concerned judge," Kamal said, adding, "The attorney general is not supposed to carry the order to the bench."

The former chief justice also said, "I do not know to what extent this is true but, to my knowledge, no attorney general has ever acted as the messenger."

A number of jurists requesting anonymity said the incident were very unfortunate for the nation. "He is the chief justice for the whole nation not for any particular party," said a lawyer requesting anonymity.

Dr M Zahir told The Daily Star last night that he was amazed by the chief justice's intervention to stay the proceedings and he was shocked by the violence on the court premises.

"I am amazed and shocked, amazed by the first incident and shocked by the second one," he explained.

Citing article 107, sub-section three, former attorney general Mahmudul Islam said the constitution gives the chief justice the authority to constitute any Supreme Court division bench. "But the power has to be exercised with reason and honesty and not for any collateral purpose," said Mahmudul Islam.