JS to decide on legal issues of martial law regimes

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The Supreme Court (SC) has disposed of the government appeal, with some observations, to review the Appellate Division verdict that had declared illegal the Fifth Amendment to the constitution, reports bdnews24.com. The apex court left it for parliament to decide on the existing legal issues arising during the martial law regimes. A five-member bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Muzammel Hossain, passed the judgment on Wednesday after the government on Mar 14 appealed for a repeal of 'some parts' of the previous verdict. The High Court ruled in 2005 that amending the constitution through martial law proclamation was illegal The amendment was meant to provide constitutional legitimacy to the governments in power - military or otherwise - following the 1975 assassination of the founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The court observed only the period between Mar 26, 1971 and Dec 16, 1972 can be called 'transitional period' as it ruled on the Appellate Division order to excuse a number of jobs done in the martial law regimes, terming those 'transitional period'. The apex court also observed the existing legal and constitutional matters, issued during the martial law regimes, would be in effect until Dec 31, 2012. "Parliament is to decide on the matters the Appellate Division had excused," the latest order said. It also ruled that the provision for consulting the Supreme Court in judicial appointment and transfer would also be in effect until that period. Attorney general Mahbubey Alam told reporters, "No highly ambitious person will dare to usurp [state] power as all avenues to illegally go to power have been closed with the verdict." For consistency in state affairs, he said, the court asked to maintain several provisions until 2012. The court asked the government to resolve the issue of ownership of the city's Moon Cinema within three months, he said. The High Court on Aug 29, 2005 declared the Fifth Amendment illegal, in response to a petition filed by Maksudul Alam, managing director of Bangladesh Italian Marble Works Limited. Alam claimed that his ownership of the Moon Cinema Hall had been expropriated by dint of the amendment that had legalised all the regimes between 1975 and 1979. In its ruling, the High Court declared illegal three regimes between Aug 15, 1975 and February 1979, headed by Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, Abu Sa'dat Mohammad Sayem and Ziaur Rahman. The ruling exempted certain measures of those regimes initiated for public welfare. But the court in its judgment said all the changes in government from August 15, 1975 right up to the national elections of 1991 were also unconstitutional. The then attorney general filed a writ petition against the verdict the same day (Aug 29, 2005) and the Appellate Division on Jan 3, 2010 permitted withdrawal of the writ petition. The Awami League-led government's withdrawal of the petition made by the previous BNP-led regime against the High Court ruling prompted petitions by the then BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain and three pro-Jamaat lawyers in June 2010. Delwar and the three lawyers-Munshi Ahsan Kabir, Tajul Islam and Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan-filed the petitions against the High Court rule repealing the Fifth Amendment. The full bench of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals after hearing on those on Feb 2, 2010. Even though a six-member Appellate Division bench, led by the then chief justice Mohammad Tafazzal Islam, declared the military regime illegal through the order, it exempted certain measures of those regimes initiated for public welfare. The Appellate Division in an amended ruling on the High Court verdict on July 27, 2010 commented that the nationalism will be 'Bangladeshi' instead of 'Bengali'.