The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) Sunday deferred to February 12 the hearing on government petition for stay on the High Court (HC) judgement scrapping the trial of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in an extortion case under the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR), reports UNB.
The apex court, headed by Justice M Fazlul Karim, held back the hearing as the government petition seeking stay was not in form in compliance with the SC rules. Hasina's counsel also objected to the flawed petition.
As Attorney-General Fida M Kamal stood up for moving the government petition for stay, the court interrupted and allowed Barrister Rafique-ul Huq, the principal counsel for Hasina, to make his submission.
Huq told the court that the government petition couldn't be entertained as it was not in form in accordance with the SC rules.
Attorney-General Kamal submitted that since the petition was taken on a supplementary list for hearing, it should be entertained because the matter is of great public interest and a lot of things are involved in it, referring to the other corruption cases being tried under the EPR.
Backing the submission by Hasina's counsel, the court deferred the hearing on the petition to Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the HC, following a writ petition of Hasina, declared illegal the government action placing businessman Azam J Chowdhury's Tk 30 million extortion case against Hasina for trial under the EPR.
The HC also quashed the entire trial proceedings of the extortion case.
That prompted the government side to instantly file a petition with the chamber judge of the SC for issuing an order of stay on the HC verdicts. But the chamber court sent it up for hearing by the full court of the Appellate Division (AD) Thursday. The AD had set Sunday for hearing, but again deferred it for the procedural flaws.
SC defers hearing in govt appeal until Feb 12
FE Team | Published: February 11, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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