Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed -File Photo

DHAKA, Dec 17, 2025 (BSS) - A farewell reception will be accorded to Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, who is going into retirement as the 25th Chief Justice on December 27, tomorrow.

The farewell reception will be held at 10:30 am tomorrow at Court No: 1 (the Chief Justice's courtroom) of the Appellate Division, Supreme Court public relations officer Md Shafiqul Islam told BSS this afternoon.

Supreme Court Bar Association President AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman will accord the farewell reception to the Chief Justice on behalf of the Bar and the Attorney General's Office.

Born on December 28, 1958, Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed obtained LLB (Hons) (First Class, First in order of merit) from University of Dhaka. He obtained BA in Jurisprudence and MA from Wadham College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, MA in Law and Diplomacy and PhD from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA.

He was Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law at The Fletcher School.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the District Court, the High Court Division and the Appellate Division of Bangladesh Supreme Court in 1984, 1986 and 2002 respectively.

Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed was elevated as Additional Judge of the High Court Division on April 27, 2003 and appointed Judge of the same Division on April 27, 2005.

He has a number of publications to his credit and lectures as invited speaker extensively at home and abroad. His 2020 publication Digital Footprints: A Rights-Based Perspective has been published by the Bangladesh IP Forum/ Bangladesh Intellectual Property Academy (BIPA). His current research interest is focused on the rule of law within the Bangladeshi constitutional scheme and his write-up has appeared in a 2024 Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group, UK publication "A History of the Constitution of Bangladesh: The Founding, Development, and Way Ahead".

He has previously worked as a Lawyer in the City of London and with the UNHCR in Hong Kong and Washington DC.

Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed is a founder member of Global Judicial Institute on the Environment, Brazil. He was instrumental in organizing the 2016 South Asia Judicial Conference on Environment and Climate Change, a milestone event held under the aegis of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank.

He participated in international Roundtables, Workshops, Conferences, Study Tours and Courses held in UK, Germany, Malaysia, The Philippines, India, Nepal, Italy, Singapore, Thailand, USA, Brazil, Myanmar and Bahrain. He notably spoke in November, 2021 as Distinguished Expert Speaker on the topic "Criminalizing Humanitarian Action- A Judicial Perspective" at a conference co-hosted by the School of Law, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China and ICRC Regional Delegation for East Asia.

He visited Brazil, USA, UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, France, Monaco, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, The Vatican City State, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Macau, Hong Kong and The Philippines.

He was sworn in as the 25th Chief Justice of Bangladesh on August 11, 2024.