SC begins hearing appeal on caretaker govt

Appearing before the Appellate Division during the hearing on the caretaker government system, Advocate Dr Sharif Bhuiyan on Tuesday argued that scrapping the system from the Constitution was a completely "wrong-headed" decision.
During his submission, he further argued that there are established rules and procedures for interpreting constitutional matters and those rules and procedures were misapplied in abolishing the caretaker government system.
"As a result of these interpretative errors, the court reached an incorrect conclusion, and based on that flawed reasoning, they invalidated the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which inserted caretaker government system."
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday started hearing on four appeal petitions filed seeking restoration of the election-time caretaker government system.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) represented by its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami represented by its Secretary General Miah Golam Porwar, five prominent citizens including Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of rights organisation Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, and Md Mofazzal Hossain, a freedom fighter from Naogaon, filed four separate petitions after the regime change on August 5 last year.
The petitioners sought review of the decision scrapping the caretaker government system, delivered by the Appellate Division headed by former Chief Justice Khairul Haque.
However, on August 27 this year, the Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Dr Syed Refaat Ahmed granted leave for those review petitions. As a result the review petitions now turned into appeal petitions.

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