Graft hits economic dev, state security: HC

In a full text of a verdict the High Court has observed that corruption has engulfed our society to a great extent, and it undermines economic development of the country as well as its security.
The court said, "It will not be out of place to mention that corruption has engulfed our society to a great extent. To remove or to combat the corruption is a great challenge in our country. Corruption has many forms. With the change of time and circumstances, the perpetrators, in the meantime, have developed many skills for commission of corruption."
"It undermines economic development of the country and the state security. It takes place at the highest levels as well as at the lower levels of society. Normally grand corruption takes place at the highest levels of society while the petty corruption takes places at the lower levels of society," read the full text.
Concerted efforts, mutual assistance and cooperation among the stakeholders are greatly needed in order to uproot the corruption from society, also read the full the text. The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim passed the observation after holding hearing on a writ petition.
The short verdict was delivered on March 14 this year, while the full text has been released on the Supreme Court website on Thursday.
The court also observed in the verdict, "Our bitter experience is that despite the court's order, many accused left the country ignoring/violating the court's order and they could not be brought to justice later on notwithstanding the repeated efforts in different manner."
Ahsan Habib, a student of Fulbari upazila under Dinajpur district and also an undergraduate student of Deakin College under Deakin University in Australia, filed the writ petition challenging the legality of a memo of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) that imposed embargo upon him to leave and re-enter into the country.
Following the petition the High Court issued a ruling upon the respondents to show cause as to why the ACC memo that relates to the petitioner imposing embargo upon him to leave and re-enter into the country, shall not be declared illegal and as to why the retention/seizure of the petitioner's passport by the Officer-in-charge of the immigration police at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport shall not be declared illegal.
After holding hearing on the ruling the court asked the respondents to return the passport to the writ petitioner so that he can continue his studies going abroad and the respondents are also directed to allow the petitioner to go abroad without any hindrance.
Advocate Murad Reza and Advocate Swapnil Bhattacharya appeared at the court on behalf of Ahsan Habib, while Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin and Mahjabin Rabbani Deepa represented the state and Advocate Fazlul Hoque appeared for the ACC.

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