POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Mar 10, 2022 : The High Court has issued a contempt of court rule against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal for disobeying the High Court’s verdict and directive to register the ‘Gana Sanghati Andolan’ as a political party. The rule seeks to know why no action will be taken against Kazi Habibul Awal for contempt of court. He has been asked to respond to the rule within four weeks.
The High Court bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman passed the rule on Thursday at the request of the party’s chief coordinator Jonaid Saki.
Lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua appeared for the petition. Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar represented the state.
An application was made to the Election Commission on December 26, 2016 to register the Gana Sanghati Andolan as a political party. On June 19 next year, the Election Commission said in a letter that registration could not be done. Later, the party’s chief coordinator for the mass solidarity movement. Jonaid Abdur Rahim Saki filed a writ petition in the High Court.
After a preliminary hearing of the writ petition, the court issued a rule on the question of registration of the party. Following the final hearing, the High Court on April 11, 2019 declared the rule appropriate and directed to complete the legal process for registration within 30 days of receiving a copy of the judgment. The then Chief Election Commissioner was KM Nurul Huda.
Subsequently, an attested copy of the judgment and order was submitted to the Election Commission in time by the Gana Sanghati Andolan. The verdict was also sent to the CEC office from the court. Even after that, the Election Commission did not take any action within the stipulated time.
After that the party contacted him at different times but he did not get any result. On October 10 last year, a contempt of court notice was sent to Nurul Huda through his lawyer. Although a long time has passed since that notice, the Election Commission has not taken any step regarding the registration of mass solidarity.
Shortly afterwards, on February 10, Jonaid Saki, a top leader of the mass solidarity movement, filed a defamation suit against CEC KM Nurul Huda for contempt of court.
Lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua told Kaler Kanth, “The petition was filed against KM Nurul Huda. But as the CEC changed during this period, the present CEC Kazi Habibul Awal has been made a defendant in the court order. Now the answer to the rule has to be given to the present CEC. ‘
