The IGP should have resigned once he was handed down punishment, but he is now serving on contract. What would have happened had the government cancelled his contract? the court asked yesterday during the hearing of the IGP's appeal against a High Court (HC) verdict.

The HC had fined him Tk 2,000, or a month in jail in case of his failure to make the payment, for contempt of court.

After hearing, a bench of Appellate Division of the Supreme Court set today for delivering its verdict upon the IGP's appeal petition against the High Court verdict.

A four-member full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain heard the petition yesterday.

Saying that the honour of the judiciary has been put into question and that the institution must be saved, the court maintained that the highest officer of the police department had behaved arrogantly with the court and underestimated it.

What would his subordinates learn and do if he, being the head of an institution, behaves this way, the court wondered.

An HC division bench last January had found IGP Shahudul Haque guilty of "gross misconduct" in a contempt case and slapped the fine on him.

The HC had also fined three traffic policemen for the same offence, but exonerated two others from the contempt of court charges.

The police boss had to face the contempt proceedings for his remarks in a written reply to certain queries in a contempt case earlier initiated against the five traffic policemen for showing disrespect to a sitting HC judge at Farmgate in Dhaka.

On his way to court, the flag car of the judge was stopped roadside by the on-duty traffic policemen to let a police officer's vehicle pass in June last year.

As the HC ordered the IGP to explain the manners of his men, the police chief came up with a counter-charge in his reply and defended the law-enforcers.

He had said, "The judge himself, by issuing the contempt rule against the traffic policemen, became liable to be prosecuted under the criminal law on charges of wrongful confinement, prejudicial act, obstructing public servants from discharging public function and threatening them."

During yesterday's hearing, the court said the Supreme Court is custodian of the constitution and protector of all citizens' rights. Authorities of the executive and the judiciary are to co-operate the Supreme Court. But the IGP by his conduct challenged its authority.

Senior Advocate Khondker Mahbubuddin Ahmed MP and Barrister Mainul Hossain, who appeared for the appellant, pleaded for mercy on the IGP.

The IGP, whose contract expires in March next year, meanwhile, left for New York yesterday and will visit the UN Peacekeeping Department.

From New York, he will go to Lyon, France to visit the Interpol Secretariat to meet its secretary general, a Police Headquarters press release said.

The hearing of a writ petition challenging the validity of Shahudul's service as IGP, meanwhile, will be held at the High Court tomorrow.

Supreme Court Advocate MK Rahman filed the petition on March 22.