Journalists were asked to leave the courtroom of a High Court bench on Monday before a hearing on a constitutional matter, raising fresh concerns over the press’s access to judicial proceedings.

The bench of Justice Ahmed Sohel and Justice Fatema Anwar was scheduled to hear a writ petition challenging the Supreme Court Secretariat Abolish Act, 2026, with a request for maintaining the status quo on the law.

At about 2:30pm, journalists from print, television, and online media outlets entered the courtroom.

Before beginning the hearing, the judges instructed the bench officers to ask the journalists to leave.

The journalists complied with the instruction.

After the hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer, Mohammad Shishir Manir, told reporters that he had raised the issue at the outset of the proceedings.

He said that the judges informed him that the decision not to allow journalists during the proceedings was not theirs.

According to the lawyer, the judges said that the restriction stemmed from an existing directive of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, which court officials followed when asking the journalists to leave.

Attorney general Md Ruhul Quddus, responding to reporters, said that he had already conveyed journalists’ demand for free access to courtrooms to the appropriate authorities after assuming office on March 25.

Journalists have been facing restrictions in the Supreme Court since January 7, when they were barred from entering the chief justice’s courtroom in the Appellate Division.

Court officials said that only lawyers in gowns were allowed inside.

A senior official of the registrar’s office said that the restriction followed recent television reports that allegedly misquoted the chief justice and published inaccurate information about the leave of two Supreme Court judges.

Earlier on January 20, the Supreme Court registrar general Mohammad Habibur Rahman Siddiquee issued a notice on ‘the order from the chief justice’ stating that it has been observed that ‘unauthorized persons’ visiting this court are entering the buildings, corridors, and courtrooms, which is creating obstacles to the security, peaceful environment, and judicial proceedings of the court.

‘This is compromising the security of the justices of both divisions of the Supreme Court, learned advocates, and the officials and staff,’ said the notice.

‘Under these circumstances, in order to ensure the overall security of the Supreme Court, the entry of any unauthorised person, other than learned advocates, advocate assistants, and the deponents of the respective cases, to the various buildings of the Supreme Court is hereby restricted. This order shall come into effect from Wednesday, January 21, 2026, and will remain in force until further notice,’ the notice added.