SC didn’t give any observation about Jamaat’s electoral symbol: EC lawyer

Election Commission’s lawyer Towhidul Islam has said that today’s verdict by the Appellate Division upholds the registration of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami granted by the EC.

However, the court did not make any observations regarding the allocation of the party’s electoral symbol., he added.

The Appellate Division has overturned a verdict issued by the High Court more than a decade ago that had declared Jamaat’s registration as a political party illegal.

The four-member Appellate Division bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, delivered the verdict today, Sunday. EC lawyer Towhidul Islam shared his reaction with Prothom Alo following the ruling.

Towhidul Islam said, “In 2008, the EC registered Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party. The Appellate Division has now cancelled the High Court verdict that declared this registration illegal. As a result, Jamaat’s registration with the EC remains valid. However, the court did not make any observations about the allocation of the party’s electoral symbol.”

The court stated in its ruling that any pending registration issues or other matters related to the party must be resolved by the EC through the full application of constitutional mandates—both judicial and legal.

The Appellate Division delivered the verdict unanimously by granting Jamaat’s appeal against the High Court ruling and disposing of its leave to appeal petition. After concluding the hearing on 14 May regarding the appeal and leave to appeal application, the court had set 1 June as the date for announcing its verdict. Accordingly, the ruling was issued today after 10:00am.

On 1 August, 2013, a three-member larger bench of the High Court, by a majority verdict, declared Jamaat’s registration as illegal by issuing a rule absolute.

In today’s ruling, the Appellate Division said that the High Court’s verdict declaring the rule absolute was not justified. Consequently, the verdict and order issued on 1 August, 2013, based on the majority opinion of the High Court bench, have been annulled as they are not acceptable.

On 12 December, 2016, in a full court meeting attended by judges of both divisions of the Supreme Court, it was unanimously decided that the ‘Scales’ symbol—as a representation of justice—should be used exclusively in the Supreme Court’s monogram. It was also decided that no individual, institution, or political organisation should be allocated this symbol for any purpose, including electoral candidacy. A letter was to be sent to the EC secretary and all relevant parties requesting cancellation of any such existing allocations of the ‘Scales’ symbol.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court administration in December that year issued a letter to the EC asking it not to allocate ‘Scales’ as an electoral symbol to any political party or candidate.

On 16 February, 2017, the Conduct of Elections Rules was further amended, listing 64 electoral symbols for candidates. The scales symbol was not included in this list.

On 12 May, Jamaat-e-Islami submitted a petition to the Appellate Division seeking to cancel the full court’s decision regarding the ban on the Scales symbol. This petition was heard along with the party’s appeal and leave to appeal. On 14 May, Jamaat-e-Islami filed another application seeking withdrawal of the 12 May petition and requested the court to include an observation instructing the EC to take necessary measures regarding the allocation of the Scales symbol.

In its verdict, the Appellate Division stated that the withdrawal petition was granted without any observation.

Senior lawyers Ehsan A Siddiq, Imran A Siddiq, and Mohammad Shishir Monir represented the appellants while lawyer Towhidul Islam appeared on behalf of the EC.

After the verdict, Jamaat-e-Islami’s lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir said, "The Election Commission has been instructed to promptly resolve the registration issue of Jamaat-e-Islami and any other related matters brought before them."

He clarified that ‘by other matters’ includes the issue of the electoral symbol.

Shishir Monir told reporters, “Through this verdict, Jamaat-e-Islami has regained its registration, and the issue of the symbol has also been referred to the Election Commission as a separate matter. We have requested a short order. Once received, we will present it to the Election Commission. We hope the Commission will quickly restore the registration and allocate the Scales symbol.”