Hearing of appeal against scrapping Jamaat registration on 19 November
The Appellate Division has fixed 19 November as the date for the hearing of the appeal against the High Court ruling that scrapped Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami's registration as a political party.
The five-member Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan today, Sunday, fixed the date for the hearing.
On the same day (19 November), a hearing will also take place for writ petitions seeking a prohibition on Jamaat taking part in political activities and also contempt of court charges against central leaders of the party.
Last June the secretary general of Tarikat Federation, Syed Rezaul Huq Chandpuri and some others had filed separate petitions with the Appellate Division, seeking a ban on Jamaat's political activities and also brought about contempt of court charges against central leaders of the party.
The hearings of the two petitions were to take place on 6 November. On that day, the hearing of the leave to appeal filed by Jamaat was fixed for 12 November. The matter was placed at serial 9 on the cause list today, Sunday.
Lawyer Md Ziaur Rahman filed an appeal asking for eight weeks due to certain personal problems of senior lawyer AZ Mohammad Ali who has been appointed for Jamaat's leave to appeal hearing.
Senior lawyers Tania Amir and Ahsanul Karim were appearing for the appeal against Jamaat.
The court later fixed next Sunday as the hearing date. Speaking to Prothom Alo, senior lawyer Ahsanul Karim said, the High Court's ruling has declared Jamaat's registration as a party to be unlawful. Later the court gave scope for appeal to be filed again this verdict and this became an appeal.
Jamaat filed another leave to appeal against the High Court ruling. The Appellate Division declared this leave to appeal redundant. The two petitions, one to ban Jamaat for its political activities and the other charging Jamaat central leader with contempt of court, will come up for hearing together on 19 November.
The writ challenging the legitimacy of Jamaat's registration by the election commission was filed in 2009 by 25 persons including Syed Rezaul Huq Chandpuri. A three-member High Court bench on 1 August 2013 declared void Jamaat's registration as a political party, based on majority opinion. At the same time, the court gave scope to appeal against this ruling. On the same year the party submitted a leave to appeal (CP) against the ruling.
On 7 December 2018 the Election Commission (EC) issued a notice, cancelling the registration of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
On 10 June this year, reports appeared in the media -- 'Jamaat gets permission for rally after a decade' and 'Jamaat demands restoration of registration, rally in Dhaka after a decade' and so on.
Attaching these reports, Syed Rezaul Huq Chandpuri and the others submitted separate appeals, seeking a ban on Jamaat's political activities and charge of contempt of court against Jamaat's ameer, secretary general and others.