Munim, Justice Fazle Kaderi Muhammad Abdul

Munim, Justice Fazle Kaderi Muhammad Abdul (1924-2001) Chief Justice of Bangladesh. He was born on l December 1924 in Dhaka district. FKMA Munim joined the Dhaka High Court Bar in 1951. After practising in the High Court for some years he went to London for higher studies and obtained LLM and PhD degrees from the University of London in 1958 and 1960 respectively. In 1959, Munim was called to the bar as a Barrister-at-Law from the Linclon's Inn.

After his return from London, Abdul Munim started legal practice and was enrolled as a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1964. He was a member of the then East Pakistan Bar Council and of the Pakistan Bar Council constituted under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act, 1965. He was appointed Advocate General of East Pakistan in 1970. In the same year he was elevated to the position of a judge in the Dhaka High Court.

After the emergence of Bangladesh Munim was appointed a judge of the High Court. But soon he was appointed secretary of the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and was closely associated with the drafting of the Constitution of Bangladesh. In 1973 he returned to the High Court Division as a judge. He was elevated to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in 1976. Munim was appointed the Chief Justice of Bangladesh in 1982 from which office he retired in November 1989.

Justice Munim was appointed chairman of the Bangladesh Law Commission in 6 August 1996, but he had to resign from this post on 31 December 1997 on health ground. He has authored two books, Rights of Citizens under the Constitution and Law (1975), Legal Aspects of Martial Law (1989). Justice Munim died on 16 February 2001. [Kazi Ebadul Hoque]