Mustafa Kamal (judge)

Mustafa Kamal (Bengali: মোস্তফা কামাল; 9 May 1933 – 5 January 2015) was the 9th Chief Justice of Bangladesh. His landmark judgment was on the Masdar Hossain case, widely known as the 'separation of judiciary', which was a milestone in the quest for separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive of the state. Kamal was a pioneer of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Bangladesh, and is considered by many as the 'father of ADR' in Bangladesh.

Kamal was born on 9 May 1933 in the village of Domar in Rangpur District of the Bengal Presidency in British India (now in Bangladesh). He was named by the national poet of Bangladesh Kazi Nazrul Islam after the Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Kamal's father, Abbasuddin Ahmed, was a legendary Bengali Renaissance singer and composer. Mustafa Kamal's younger brother, Mustafa Zaman Abbasi, is a musicologist and writer, and his younger sister, Ferdausi Rahman, is a legendary playback singer and vocalist.

Kamal spent his early childhood in the village of Balarampur of Cooch Behar - a princely state during the British Raj and now a district of West Bengal, India. Later, he was moved to the district town of Cooch Behar and attended schools from there. He shifted with his family to Dhaka, the capital of erstwhile East Pakistan in 1947.

Justice Mustafa Kamal's formal education started in Cooch Behar's Jenkins School, when he was enrolled in class three in 1940. Established in 1861, Jenkins School was one of the most reputed schools in the Bengal Presidency. He continued studying in that school until 1946, when he was transferred to Kolkata and was admitted in class nine in Ballygunge Government High School. Kamal had to return to his previous Cooch Behar school later in the same year for there was a communal riot in Kolkata in the month of August. He completed class nine from Jenkins School, and in January 1947, got re-admitted to Ballygunge Govt. High School in class ten. This time again, he could not finish the class in Ballygunge due to the partition of India. In August 1947, Abbasuddin Ahmed, Mustafa Kamal's father, opted to migrate to Dhaka – the capital of East Pakistan. Before the partition was finalized, Kamal, for a brief period of time, took classes in Jenkins School. Finally in the later part of 1947, he moved to Dhaka along with his family, and got admitted in the Dhaka Collegiate School to finish class ten.

In 1948, Kamal appeared in the examination of Matric from the Dhaka Collegiate School. He stood 7th in the merit list of Dhaka Board (covering all of East Pakistan). He studied Intermediate in the Jagannath College of Dhaka (now a public university of Bangladesh), and appeared in the I.A. examination in 1950. This time, he stood 5th in the merit list. In 1950, Kamal got himself admitted in the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kamal studied Political Science in his B.A. (Hons) and M.A. In the year 1953 and 1954 respectively, he achieved those degrees securing `first class first’ in both. He also stood first among all candidates in the Arts faculty and was awarded a special scholarship from the Pakistan Government.

In September 1955, he went to England with this scholarship. He obtained an M.Sc. (Economics) in 1958 from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, UK. While he was studying for his M.Sc., Mr. Kamal joined the famed Lincoln's Inn (London, UK) and was called to the Bar in 1959.

Having completed the Bar-at-Law course, Barrister Mustafa Kamal was called to the Bar from the Hon’ble Society of Lincoln's Inn (London, UK) in 1959. He returned to Dhaka, and began his professional career as a lawyer in the same year. In 1961, he also joined the Department of Law in the University of Dhaka as a part-time Lecturer, and continued until 1968. He also served as the legal advisor to Rajuk at that period of time. The Government of Bangladesh appointed him as an Additional Attorney General in 1976. In 1977, he was appointed as the Advocate General of the High Court, when the High Court got separated from the Supreme Court. After eleven months, the Supreme Court and the High Court got reinstated, and the position of Advocate General was dissolved. Barrister Kamal returned to the practice of law. He was, however, called to the bench on 9 April 1979 as a Justice of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, and was elevated to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on 1 December 1989. Justice Mustafa Kamal became the Chief Justice of Bangladesh on 1 June 1999, and took his retirement on 1 January 2000. His final judgment was on the famed Masdar Hossain case, popularly known as 'the separation of judiciary', which is considered as one of the five most important cases in the constitutional history of Bangladesh.

In the year 2000, Justice Kamal joined the World Bank as a Consultant from Bangladesh. He helped introduce Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Bangladesh serving as the overall coordinator of the Legal and Judicial Capacity Building Project (L&JCBP) of the World Bank. He is titled the 'Father of ADR in Bangladesh'.