Appellate Division dismisses petition challenging legality of 290 MPs’ oath

Staff Reporter  :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday upheld a High Court order that rejected a writ petition which challenged the legality of oath taking by 290 Awami League alliance lawmakers, who were elected in the polls held on December 30, 2018.

A seven-member Bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after hearing a leave to appeal petition filed against the High Court order.
The oath taking by 290 Awami League alliance lawmakers has been justified again following the SC order, said Additional Attorney General Mohammad Mehedi Hassan Chowdhury who represented the state in the court hearing.
He said the apex court dismissed the leave to appeal petition as there is no illegality in taking oath and assuming the offices by the 290 lawmakers.
Petitioner’s lawyer AM Mahbub Uddin Khokan said that a petition will be moved before the
Appellate Division, seeking review of its dismissal order.
Earlier on June 11, Barrister Khokan took an initiative for hearing of the four-year-old pending appeal before the Appellate Division. He placed the appeal before the apex court chamber judge for its hearing on the same day.

Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice M Enayetur Rahim sent the matter to the regular Appellate Division Bench for detail hearing.
The leave to appeal petition was filed with the apex court on August 20, 2019 against the HC order that on February 18, 2019 summarily rejected a writ petition which challenged the legality of their oath taking on January 3, 2019.
Lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokansaid that oath taking by the 290 Awami League led alliance lawmakers, who were elected on December 30, 2018 in the 11th parliamentary elections, on January 3, 2019, was unconstitutional as the tenure of the 10th parliament expired on January 28 the same year.
Therefore, there were two parliaments from January 3 to January 28 in 2019 which is unconstitutional, he said, adding that the BNP lawmakers had taken oath much later.
Supreme Court lawyer Taherul Islam Tawhid filed the writ petition and later the leave to appeal petition with the SC challenging the HC order that on February 18, 2019 rejected his writ petition over this issue.

Barrister Khokan argued that the oath-taking of the MPs violated articles 123(3) and 148(3) of the Constitution of Bangladesh. According to Article 123(3)(a), Parliamentary election shall be held within 90 days of dissolving the incumbent Parliament.
“As the 11th national election was held without dissolving the 10th Parliament, the polls have breached the Constitution,” added the lawyer.
The 10th National Parliament which first sat on January 29, 2014 was in continuation during the oath taking of new lawmakers of 11th Parliament as per Article 72(3) of the Constitution, he said, adding, “oath-taking of the lawmakers is hence unconstitutional”.