A lawyer of Dhaka has sent letters to two ministries demanding annulment of the move of giving the police magisterial power through amending the ‘Communicable Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act, 2018’.
Advocate Md Kamruzzaman, a lawyer of District and Sessions Judge Court of Dhaka, sent the letters to the law ministry and the public administration ministry on Monday (May 17).
The lawyer told the Bangladesh Post that he sent the letters to the Secretary of Law and Justice Division of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry and Public Administration Ministry. In the letter, he argued that giving the police magisterial power is contradictory to the principle of natural justice, constitutional basic structure, separation of powers and independence of judiciary. He, however, suggested incorporating the BCS cadres from education cadre and other cadres in case of lack of manpower to conduct mobile court.
Opposing the move, Advocate Kamruzzaman said, “We don’t expect such quality from them like a trained judicial officer. A doctor can’t be asked to do the job of an engineer. So, police also can’t conduct the mobile court as it is not their duty and they do not have enough knowledge and skill in this regard.” Earlier, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said that the government has taken a plan to amend the ‘Communicable Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act, 2018’ with a view to tackling emergency situation related to public health by checking contagious diseases, particularly the Covid-19. So, the government wants to amend the law to give the police magisterial power to ensure facemask use and other health rules during the Covid-19 pandemic. The plan has been taken due to lack of manpower to conduct mobile court, he added.
Some lawyers said that the move for empowering police with magisterial power will be illegal and contradictory to the country’s constitution. For this reason, SM Zulfikar Ali Zuni, a lawyer of Supreme Court and chairman of the National Lawyers’ Council, recently sent a legal notice to the state minister for public administration in this connection. In the legal notice, he called upon the government not to empower police with magisterial power.
The ‘Communicable Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act’ was formulated in 2018. The law was enacted aiming to raise awareness and prevent, control, and eradicate infectious diseases to address public health emergencies and reduce health risk. The law is now being used for controlling the Covid-19 pandemic.
