AD asks BTRC to block SC lawyer's facebook account

The Appellate Division (AD) of the Supreme Court on Sunday asked the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to remove derogatory comments about the judiciary posted by Supreme Court lawyer, Eunus Ali Akond, on his facebook wall and to block his account immediately.

The apex court at the same time suspended the enrolment of Advocate Eunus Ali Akond as a lawyer for the next two weeks for posting the comments about the judiciary on his personal facebook account recently.

The court also directed the lawyer not to practice law before the Appellate Division and High Court Division of the SC for two weeks.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order on a Suo Moto move after additional attorney general Murad Reza had placed Mr Ali's facebook statuses before the court.

After hearing the matter, the court also summoned Mr Eunus Ali to appear before this court at 9:30am on October 11 to explain his conduct.

Senior SC lawyers said that this was probably the first time that the apex court had ordered the BTRC to block a certain person's facebook account.

Mr Murad Reza appealed to the court to contempt Advocate Eunus Ali saying that his comments were 'serious contempt of court'.

Later in the afternoon, the court heard the statements of senior SC lawyers Fida M Kamal, Monsurul Haque Chowdhury, Abdul Matin Khasru, Supreme Court Bar Association President AM Amin Uddin, lawyer Manzill Murshid and SCBA secretary Ruhul Quddus Kazal over the issue and passed the order.

On August 12 this year, the SC had issued a contempt of court rule against another Supreme Court lawyer Syed Mamun Mahbub for posting a derogatory status about the Chief Justice and the judiciary on facebook on Aug 11.

Later the Appellate Division acquitted Mr Mahbub as he offered unconditional apology to the court for his conduct. The SC lawyer told the apex court that he had mistakenly used a word while posting a status on his facebook profile, which he deleted later.

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