Pleas made to defer 5th amendment hearing
Monday, 18 January 2010
Two pleas have been made to defer for eight weeks the hearing on two leaves to appeal seeking a stay order on the 2005 High Court (HC) judgment declaring the Fifth Amendment to the constitution illegal.
The Appellate Division is scheduled to hear today (Monday) the leaves to appeal filed by BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and three Jamaat-e-Islami-backed lawyers Munshi Ahsan Kabir, Tajul Islam and Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan, reports bdnews24.com.
TH Khan and Barrister Abdur Razzak filed the petitions Sunday on behalf of Mr Delwar and three lawyers seeking more time to prepare for the hearing.
The Supreme Court earlier this month lifted a stay order on the HC ruling as the government was allowed to withdraw a previous leave to appeal seeking to challenge the ruling.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had told the media that with the withdrawal of the leaves to appeal and vacation of the existing stay order, the HC ruling was upheld, for now.
The HC gave the ruling in August 2005 in response to a petition challenging the legality of a Martial Law Regulation of 1977.
In its ruling, the HC declared regimes between August 15, 1975 and 1979, headed by Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, Abu Sa'dat Mohammad Sayem and Ziaur Rahman illegal.
The petition on which the ruling was given had been filed by an individual who 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.
The Fifth Amendment was meant to provide constitutional legitimacy to the governments in power-military or otherwise-after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
In 2005, an alliance government led by BNP filed a leave to appeal on which the Supreme Court had stayed the HC ruling.
But the incumbent government in May 2009 petitioned the court for withdrawal of that leave to appeal, a legal term for permission from court to file petition.
The Appellate Division is scheduled to hear today (Monday) the leaves to appeal filed by BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and three Jamaat-e-Islami-backed lawyers Munshi Ahsan Kabir, Tajul Islam and Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan, reports bdnews24.com.
TH Khan and Barrister Abdur Razzak filed the petitions Sunday on behalf of Mr Delwar and three lawyers seeking more time to prepare for the hearing.
The Supreme Court earlier this month lifted a stay order on the HC ruling as the government was allowed to withdraw a previous leave to appeal seeking to challenge the ruling.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had told the media that with the withdrawal of the leaves to appeal and vacation of the existing stay order, the HC ruling was upheld, for now.
The HC gave the ruling in August 2005 in response to a petition challenging the legality of a Martial Law Regulation of 1977.
In its ruling, the HC declared regimes between August 15, 1975 and 1979, headed by Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, Abu Sa'dat Mohammad Sayem and Ziaur Rahman illegal.
The petition on which the ruling was given had been filed by an individual who 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.
The Fifth Amendment was meant to provide constitutional legitimacy to the governments in power-military or otherwise-after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
In 2005, an alliance government led by BNP filed a leave to appeal on which the Supreme Court had stayed the HC ruling.
But the incumbent government in May 2009 petitioned the court for withdrawal of that leave to appeal, a legal term for permission from court to file petition.