Contempt of court rule against CEC

The High Court (HC) on Thursday asked the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal to explain why it would not take punitive measures ‍against him for not registering the Gana Sanghati Andolan as a political party as directed by the court.

The court asked the CEC to explain himself within four weeks.

The HC bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman passed the order after a hearing of a contempt of court petition of the party's chief coordinator Junaid Abdur Rahim Saki.

On 28 December 2016, Gana Sanghati Andolan applied to the Election Commission for registering as a political party. On 19 June 2017, the commission informed in a letter that registration could not be done.

Later, the chief coordinator of the political party filed a writ petition with the HC.

On 11 April 2019, the HC gave a verdict after the final hearing of the writ and directed the Election Commission to register Gana Sanghati Andolan as a political party within 30 days of receiving the copy of the verdict.

As the verdict was not upheld, Jonaid Saki filed a contempt of court petition on 10 February. The ruling was given on Thursday after a hearing on this application.

Lawyer Jyortimoy Barua, along with Lawyers Ripon Barua and Fuad Hasan, stood for the writ petition. Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar represented the state.

When the contempt petition was filed, KM Nurul Huda was the CEC, whose term ended on 14 February. On 28 February, Kazi Habibul Awal was appointed as the new CEC. So, the application has been amended accordingly, said Jyortimoy Barua.

The rule sought to know why contempt of court proceedings would not be initiated against the CEC for disobeying the directions of the High Court judgement.