Appellate Division stays order to allot stall for Adarsha Prakashani

The Appellate Division has stayed the High Court order to immediately allot a stall to Adarsha Prakashani in the Ekushey Boi Mela.

The three-member Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order on Wednesday after settling the appeal filed by the Bangla Academy against the order of the High Court.

Earlier on 8 February, the High Court issued a rule and ordered the Bangla Academy to immediately allocate a stall to the Adarsha Prakashani after the preliminary hearing of the writ filed by the proprietor of Adarsha Prakashani.

The director general of the Bangla Academy submitted a leave to appeal to the Appellate Division against the order of the High Court on Sunday. It came up for hearing in Chamber Court last Monday.

The Chamber Court referred the petition to the regular bench of the Appellate Division for hearing on 15 February. Following that, the appeal was brought up for hearing in the regular bench of the Appellate Division today, Wednesday.

Senior lawyer AM Amin Uddin and lawyer Mintu Kumar Mandal stood for the Bangla Academy in the hearing. On the other hand, lawyer Anik R Haque stood on behalf of Md Mahbubur Rahman, the proprietor of Adarsha Prakashani, in the court today.

Speaking to Prothom Alo after the hearing, Mintu Kumar Mandal said, “The High Court order to allocate a stall to the Adarsha Prakashani has been stayed. Therefore, they (the publisher) will not get any stalls at the Ekushey Book Fair. The decision of the Bangla Academy to not allocate any stall to Adarsha Prakashani has been upheld.”

On 2 February, Mahbubur Rahman filed the writ petition with the High Court challenging the validity of the decision against alloting any stall to Adarsha Prakashani at the Ekushey Book Fair. During the hearing of the writ petition, objections were raised against three books. These are – ‘Mediocrityr Sondhane’ (In Search of Mediocrity) by Faham Abdus Salam, ‘Unnayan Bivram’ (The Illusion of Development) by Zia Hasan and ‘Apratiroddhya Unnayaner Abhabaniya Kathamala’(Unthinkable Words of Irresistible Development) by Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb.

The High Court asked the petitioners to sign a bond for not selling or displaying these three books. The High Court issued a rule and ordered the allocation of a stall to the Adarsha Prakashani after the submission of the bond. However, that order was stayed by the Appellate Division today.