Full verdict on caretaker govt published

The full verdict of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on restoring the caretaker government system has been published.

The 74-page judgment, written by former Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, was uploaded to the Supreme Court website on Sunday.

The verdict was initially delivered on November 20 by a seven-member bench headed by Refaat Ahmed. Other members of the bench included Justices Md Ashfaqul Islam, Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury, Md Rezaul Haque, SM Emdadul Hoque, AKM Asaduzzaman and Farah Mahbub.The hearing on the appeal seeking restoration of the caretaker government during election periods began on October 21 and continued for several days.

Lawyer Sharif Bhuiyan represented writ petitioner Badiul Alam Majumdar, while advocates Mohammad Shishir Monir, Zainul Abedin and Ruhul Quddus Kajal appeared for other petitioners.

The state was represented by Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman.After about ten days of hearings, the Appellate Division set November 20 for delivering the verdict. Earlier, on August 27, the court allowed an appeal against the 2011 judgment that had declared the caretaker government system unconstitutional and decided to rehear the matter.The caretaker government system was introduced through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1996.

It was later challenged in the High Court by three lawyers, including Salimullah.On August 4, 2004, the High Court dismissed the writ petition and upheld the caretaker government system as legal. However, in a landmark ruling on May 10, 2011, the Appellate Division declared the 13th Amendment unconstitutional by majority opinion.

Following that verdict, parliament passed the 15th Amendment on June 30, 2011, abolishing the caretaker government system.Political developments after the mass uprising on August 5, 2024 revived the issue. Several individuals, including Badiul Alam Majumdar, filed review petitions seeking reconsideration of the 2011 judgment.Separate review petitions were also filed by Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Mia Golam Parwar.

In total, four review petitions were heard by the full Appellate Division bench before the court allowed the appeal against the earlier ruling and reheard the case prior to delivering its verdict.