Review hearing on caretaker government deferred to Feb 9

The review hearing on the scraping of the caretaker government system of the constitution was in Sunday's Cause List of the appellate division of Bangladesh Supreme Court. However, the hearing was deferred to February 9. 

The four member Appellate Division of the Supreme Court led by Senior Justice Md Ashfakul Islam fixed the date on Sunday morning. 

On December 1, December 19 was fixed as the date for a review hearing on the scraping of the caretaker government system.

On October 16, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam filed a review petition against the scraping of the caretaker government system (13th Amendment) before the appellate division.

Earlier, another review petition was submitted to the apex court by the general secretary of Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujon) Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar.

Besides, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Prof Miah Golam Parwar also filed a petition regarding the same issue. The court later decided to hear all the petitions analogously.

The 13th Amendment of the constitution, which incorporates the caretaker government system, was adopted by parliament in 1996. Three lawyers led by M Salim Ullah filed a writ with the High Court challenging the legality of the amendment.

The appellate division on May 10, 2011, gave a judgment scrapping the 13th amendment of the constitution.

After the judgment, the Jatiya Sangsad on June 30, 2011, passed the 15th amendment keeping the scraping of the caretaker system with some ratifications. A gazette notification was also published in this regard on July 3 of that year.

Besides, a high court division bench comprising Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Debashish Ray Chowdhury on December 17 gave a judgment scraping the 15th amendment mentioning that Sections 20 and 21 of the 15th amendment are contrary to the constitution.