Writ filed against Maya\\\'s JS membership legality
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
A writ petition was filed on Tuesday with the High Court (HC) seeking a direction for vacating the post of Member of Parliament and Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, reports UNB.
Eunus Ali Akond, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ petition.
The writ petition will be placed on Wednesday at an HC bench comprising Justice Naima Haider and Justice Mostafa Jaman Islam, the petitioner said.
Earlier on June 30, the lawyer had sent a legal notice to Maya to explain by which authority he is still serving as a minister and MP after the Supreme Court (SC) quashed a HC order acquitting him of graft charges.
Advocate Yunus Ali Akand sent the notice to Maya by post.
In his notice, Yunus said a convicted person cannot hold the post of a Member of Parliament or minister as per the article 66/2 (d) of the constitution.
The article stipulates: A person shall be disqualified for election as, or for being, a member of Parliament who has been, on conviction for a criminal offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.'
On June 14, the Appellate Division (AD) of the SC quashed a HC order that acquitted Maya of the graft charges.
It also asked the HC to rehear the appeal filed by the minister with the HC challenging a lower court judgment, which had jailed him for 13 years in 2007.
In 2007, the ACC filed the case against the senior Awami League (AL) leader with Sutrapur thana accusing him of amassing wealth beyond the known source of income and concealing information about his wealth worth Tk 2.9 million.
On February 24, 2008, a lower court sentenced him to 13 years' imprisonment in the case and asked the authorities concerned to confiscate his wealth worth Tk 50 million (5.0 crore).
Maya filed an appeal with the HC. On October 27, 2010 and the HC cleared him of the graft charges.
Later, the ACC filed an appeal against the HC order to the AD.