Speaking to The Daily Star at his office yesterday, Kamal, a former chief justice, also outlined a number of ways to rid urgently the judiciary of unqualified judges.

The issue came to the fore after Chief Justice Mohammad Ruhul Amin on Sunday said the damage done to the judiciary through political appointment of judges in the recent years will take more than 20 years to remedy.

Different quarters including the lawyers and civil society members welcomed the statement but were unanimous in calling for immediate actions to cleanse the court system of politicisation and the judges lacking qualifications.

The interim government too has dropped hints that it is weighing up options for restoring the image of the judiciary. Law Adviser Mainul Hosein Wednesday said the judges in question must go and as a last resort the government might opt for the Supreme Judicial Council.

Referring to the chief justice's remark, Mostafa Kamal said the issue has long been seeping through various channels and he [chief justice] has made quite a statement by making it public.

"I have strong feelings that the chief justice who is a man of principle and is credited with being a no-nonsense man must be having some programmes up his sleeve to remedy the problem that he has so boldly highlighted."

On possible approaches to dealing with the issue, he said one can of course talk about the Supreme Judicial Council being applicable here.

According to the constitution, if the Council reports upon inquiry that a judge has ceased to be capable of properly performing the functions of his office by reason of physical or mental incapacity, or has been guilty of gross misconduct, the president will, by order, remove the judge from office.

Justice Kamal who retired on December 31, 1999 said, "I would respectfully say that if a judge cannot understand law, cannot appreciate facts, cannot read or dictate judgments in the open court, it is not too difficult to prove that by reason of physical or mental incapacity he has ceased to be capable of properly performing the functions of his office.

"Painful though it may be I see no other way but to invoke the Supreme Judicial Council if such cases of incorrigible judges exist."

He added, "There may be a second group of judges who are technically above board and may not have committed any mischief attached to the provisions of the Supreme Judicial Council but because of their behaviour in and out of the court, or general appearance and movement they do not appear worthy to be judges of the highest court."

The former apex court chief then spoke of a practice where the ones of the type mentioned above are disciplined by a group of retired chief justices operating gratis at the request of the chief justice to oversee the functioning of everyone holding constitutional posts.

He said, "Our country may try this informal and effective in-house procedure for disciplining the errant judges."

He lamented that parliament has not yet enacted any law prescribing the other qualifications for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court.

The constitution states that a person shall not be qualified for appointment as a judge unless he is a citizen of Bangladesh and has, for not less than 10 years, been an advocate of the Supreme Court; or has, for not less than the same period, held judicial office; or has such other qualifications as may be prescribed by law for appointment as a judge.

Recollecting his days as a lawyer, he said only five to six High Court (HC) judges could comfortably discharge duties for the East Pakistan judiciary.

Over the years, the number of judges, lawyers, and cases have risen but the backlog of cases has yet to come down, he said adding that the current situation in the higher courts warrants a regime stressing load management, case flow, and matters relating to inventory.

He also emphasised the need for a court administration equipped with modern technologies and adequate technical staff to overcome the problems confronting the judiciary.

Out of 68 confirmed judges in the HC Division and seven in the Appellate Division, the appointments of 41 were confirmed during the rule of the BNP-led four-party alliance. The last government had appointed 45 additional HC judges between 2001 and 2006, said court sources.