HC allows BNP to submit arguments

The Supreme Court yesterday allowed BNP to present arguments on the rule questioning the constitutionality of the 15th Amendment that scrapped the impartial transitional government system.

The HC bench of Justices Farah Mahbub and Justice Debasish Roy Chowdhury granted a petition filed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Senior Advocate Advocate Zainul Abedin and Advocate Md Badruddoza Badal filed the petition.

The bench will hold a hearing today on the rule questioning the constitutionality of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Parliament on June 30, 2011 and signed on July 3 of the same year. It abolished the interim government system introduced by the 13th Amendment in 1996.

The law also recognized Sheikh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the Father of the Nation and increased the number of reserved seats for women in parliament from 45 to 50.

After the change, three general elections were held with Sheikh Hasina in the Prime Minister’s office.

Earlier, the HC bench allowed Jamaat-e-Islami to make arguments before this court in connection with the case, the party’s lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir told The Daily Star.

Another HC bench headed by Justice Naima Haider on August 19 this year issued the rule asking the respondents to show reasons why the Constitution (15th Amendment) Act, 2011 should not be declared unconstitutional and why the previous actions taken under this law should. are not treated as completed and closed transactions.

Secretaries of the Ministry of Justice and the Jatiya Sangsad Secretariat have been made respondents to the rule.

The rule was issued following a petition filed by five citizens – Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of rights body Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, Tofail Ahmed, M Hafizuddin Khan, Md Jobirul Hoque Bhuiyan and Zahrah Rahman – who challenged the legality and constitutionality of the 15th Amendment . .

They filed the petition on August 18 as a public interest litigation before the HC, stating that the nation had witnessed three consecutive failed elections after the 15th Amendment and that this ultimately led to the July 2024 uprising and the fall of the government on August 5, 2024. .

The Thirteenth Amendment was incorporated into the Constitution in 1996 to guarantee free and fair elections and strengthen democracy. It represented the “will of the people” and a “political consensus and solution,” the petition said.

Meanwhile, the HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Debasish Roy Chowdhury yesterday issued a new rule asking the respondents to explain why the Constitution (15th Amendment) Act, 2011, should not be declared contradictory to the Constitution and why the previous action taken in pursuance of this Act shall not be declared illegal.

The court issued the rule after hearing another petition filed recently by Mofazzal Hossan, a freedom fighter and resident of Narayanpara of Raninagar in Naogaon, challenging the legality of the 15th Amendment.