Taking a serious note of filing PIL petition for wrong reason and wasting the court’s precious time, the apex court of Bangladesh on Thursday (May 18) imposed Tk one lakh on the petitioner who is a lawyer.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court fined the lawyer named Abdul Aziz Khan for filing the pointless petition challenging the legality of the election of Mohammad Shahabuddin as president of Bangladesh.
An eight-member bench of the apex court, headed Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, fined the lawyer Tk one lakh after dismissing his leave-to-appeal petition seeking permission to appeal against a High Court decision in this regard.
The other members of the bench are- Justice Md. Nuruzzaman, Justice Obaidul Hassan, Justice Borhanuddin, Justice M Enayetur Rahim, Justice MdAshfaqul Islam, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Jahangir Hossain.
The apex court cleared the way for President Mohammad Shahabuddin to continue as the head of state.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin opposed the leave to appeal petition while Abdul Aziz Khan appeared for hearing in person.
On March 15, the High Court summarily rejected two writ petitions that challenged the election of Mohammad Shahabuddin as president, stating that the post of president does not fall under the service of the republic.
The bench of Justice MdKhasruzzaman and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir had passed the order after hearing two petitions, of which one was filed by lawyer MA Aziz Khan and the other by Abdul Momen Chowdhury.
Referring to a High Court judgement delivered in 1997, the court, however, had observed that the president’s post belonged to ‘the office of profit’ but was not under the service of the republic.
The court also observed that the petitioners could not refer to any article of the constitution barring the election of Shahabuddin as president.
The court also observed that the petitioners could not refer to any article of the constitution which bars the election of Shahabuddin as president.
Abdul Aziz Khan later appealed to the Appellate Division against the High Court order.
Mohammed Shahabuddin was sworn in as the 22nd President of Bangladesh on April 24 as the tenure of outgoing president Abdul Hamid expired on that day.
On March 7, Aziz Khan filed the writ petition challenging the legality of the process of the election of Mohammad Shahabuddin as president of Bangladesh.
The lawyer also challenged the issuance of the gazette notification that declared Shahabuddin president-elect and sought stay of the operation of the notification.
Shahabuddin, former commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission, cannot be the president of the republic as section 9 of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act disqualifies ACC commissioners from any office of profit in the service of the republic and the office of the president is an office of profit, Aziz argued.
The Election Commission on February 13 declared Shahabuddin president-elect of Bangladesh.
Shahabuddin, also a retired judge, was elected unopposed as the candidate nominated by the ruling Awami League.
