ARTICLE TEXT

Every lawyer in Bangladesh knows the way to the Supreme Court. Not every lawyer knows its history. Here are ten facts about the country’s highest court.

1. It is one court with two divisions

Article 94 of the Constitution establishes a single Supreme Court of Bangladesh comprising the Appellate Division and the High Court Division. The High Court Division exercises original jurisdiction in writs under Article 102 and hears appeals from the subordinate courts. The Appellate Division hears appeals from the High Court Division. The two divisions are not separate courts, which is why the Eighth Amendment case in 1989 held that the High Court Division could not be split into permanent regional benches.

2. It came into being on Victory Day

The Supreme Court was established on 16 December 1972, when the Constitution came into force. Before that, a Bangladesh High Court had operated under a Presidential Order from early 1972. Its head, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, became the first Chief Justice of Bangladesh.

3. A Chief Justice once ran the country

Chief Justice Sayem left the court in 1975 to become President of Bangladesh and Chief Martial Law Administrator after the coups of that year. The episode is one reason the Constitution’s separation of the judiciary from the executive is treated with such seriousness today.

4. The current Chief Justice is the twenty-sixth

Chief Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury was sworn in on 28 December 2025, succeeding Syed Refaat Ahmed. He is the twenty-sixth person to hold the office.

5. Fewer than 110 judges serve 170 million people

As of September 2026, the Supreme Court’s own list shows five judges in the Appellate Division, including the Chief Justice, and ninety-nine in the High Court Division. With roughly 2,000 judges in the subordinate courts, Bangladesh has about one judge for every 78,000 people.

6. The first woman judge joined in 2000

Nazmun Ara Sultana began her career as a munsif in 1975. She was appointed to the High Court Division on 28 May 2000, the first woman to sit there, and became the first woman judge of the Appellate Division on 23 February 2011. She retired in July 2017. In 2026, the High Court Division’s list includes eight women judges by name, and the Appellate Division includes Justice Farah Mahbub.

7. The old building was a Governor’s residence

The Old High Court Building, in Renaissance style, was completed in 1905 as the official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of the short-lived province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. After Partition in 1947 it became the seat of the Dhaka High Court. It remains one of the finest colonial buildings in the city.

8. The court moved to its present home in 1967

The main Supreme Court building on the same estate was constructed in the 1960s, and the High Court moved into it on 10 July 1967, five years before independence. Its dome is now the most recognisable symbol of Bangladeshi justice.

9. Its judgments are binding law

Under Article 111, the law declared by the Appellate Division is binding on the High Court Division, and the law declared by either division is binding on all subordinate courts. That is why guidelines issued in cases such as BLAST v Bangladesh and BNWLA v Bangladesh operate as law until Parliament legislates.

10. It has struck down five constitutional amendments

From the Eighth Amendment case in 1989 to the review of the Thirteenth Amendment judgment in 2025, the Supreme Court has invalidated all or part of five constitutional amendments. The power to do so rests on the basic structure doctrine, which the court adopted from India and has developed in its own way.

A Closing Thought

The Supreme Court has heard cases about the Constitution’s meaning, the country’s borders, the independence of its own judges and the rights of its rivers. For a court just over half a century old, it has an unusually large history. Its future, from the appointment of its judges to the creation of a separate secretariat, is one of the central questions of constitutional reform.

Sources

1. Supreme Court of Bangladesh, judges of the Appellate Division: https://www.supremecourt.gov.bd/web/index.php?page=judges.php&menu=11&div_id=1&lang=
2. Supreme Court of Bangladesh, judges of the High Court Division: https://www.supremecourt.gov.bd/web/index.php?page=judges.php&menu=11&div_id=2&lang=
3. Wikipedia, Chief Justice of Bangladesh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Justice_of_Bangladesh
4. Wikipedia, Old High Court Building, Dhaka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_High_Court_Building,_Dhaka
5. Wikipedia, Nazmun Ara Sultana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazmun_Ara_Sultana
6. The Daily Star, Courts grapple with shortage of judges (September 2025): https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/courts-grapple-shortage-judges-3981411