High Court issues contempt of court rule against CEC

The High Court has issued a contempt of court rule against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) CEC Kazi Habibul Awal for not registering the Gana Sanghati Andolan as a political party as directed by the court.

A High Court bench comprising Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman passed the order on Thursday after a hearing of a contempt of court writ petition.

CEC Kazi Habibul Awal will have to respond to the rule within four weeks.

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

Later, the chief coordinator of the Gana Sanghati Andolan Junaid Abdur Rahim Saki filed a writ petition with the High Court.

On 11 April 2019, the High Court 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 a copy of the verdict.

KM Nurul Huda was the CEC then and the current CEC is Kazi Habibul Awal. He and four new commissioners were sworn in on 28 February.

As the verdict was not upheld, Chief Coordinator of Gana Sanghati Andolan Jonaid Saki filed a contempt of court petition on 10 February.

A ruling was given today after a hearing on this application.

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

Lawyer Jyortimay Barua later told media that when the contempt petition was filed, the CEC was KM Nurul Huda. His term ended on 14 February.

Then Kazi Habibul Awal was appointed as the new CEC. So the application has been amended accordingly, he added.

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 judgment.