Two judges of a dual bench of the High Court leave court amid chaos between pro-Awami League lawyers and pro-BNP lawyers.
The incident took place after the grant of a writ petition seeking BRTC's action to remove addresses and statements of BNP acting vice chairman Tarique Rahman, who is absconding in the eye of the law, from social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube.
Earlier, the High Court bench comprised of Justice Md Khasruzzaman and Justice Md Khairul Alam granted the writ petition.
Afterwards, pro-BNP lawyers in the court opposed the move.
Drawing attention of the court, pro-BNP lawyers said a petition was submitted to the chief justice to transfer the writ to another court. Under the circumstances, it is not fair to issue an order. Keep the writ petition filed and wait, the lawyers added.
On behalf of the writ petitioner, the deputy attorney general said, "What is this? What is happening?"
Afterwards, pro-BNP lawyers started raising objections over the granting of the writ petition.
Then the court said, "When you finish, we will say something."
At the time a pro-BNP lawyer said, "It is like a game show." The court said, "Let us speak." Then a BNP lawyer said, "No, my lord."
Drawing the attention of a judge who led the bench, a pro-BNP lawyer said, "People will misunderstand if we don't speak." Then the court said, "People won't misunderstand. Are you not aware of the petition submitted to the chief justice? You not look at the application, but you are aware of the petition?
A pro-BNP lawyer said, "You have to say whether you know about the petition or not. Just say that you will deliver the verdict no matter what we say. Then we will not remain here. We will go to the media."
The deputy attorney general said they are seeking a media trial.
The court said, "You could have said this before we delivered the verdict."
The pro-BNP lawyer shouted, "It was said, it was said. The police have been deployed in front of the court."
Writ filed 8 years ago
On 6 January 2015, Supreme Court lawyer Nasrin Siddique Lina filed a writ petition with the High Court. The High Court issued an order including a rule over the primary hearing of the writ petition.
As per the rule, an instruction has been given to take necessary action to ban broadcasting and publication of all type of addresses and statements by BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman who is absconding in the eyes of the law.
The writ petitioner recently took an initiative for hearing over the rule.
In continuation of this, the court included the issue in the cause list.
Sources said the notice returned on 2 August instead of issuance against Tarique Rahman as he is abroad.
On 10 August, it was placed in the hearing that address of the defender Tarique Rahman (House No 6, Room No 86) is not correct.
The court asked the petitioner to correct the address in the petition.
The petitioner submitted the petition with corrected address of Tarique Rahman, seeking an issuance of rule.
On 13 August, the High Court issued an order to send the notice through a special messenger to the corrected address (House No 6, Road No 86, and Gulshan-2) of Tarique Rahman.
Later, the writ petitioner filed a supplementary petition seeking an order asking BTRC to take steps to remove addresses and statements of Tarique Rahman from social media and YouTube, which the High Court granted and issued an order.