Cancellation of caretaker govt: SC defers hearing of 3 review petitions to Nov 17

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today deferred to November 17 the hearing on three separate review petitions challenging its 2011 verdict that scrapped the non-party caretaker government system.
A six-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, which was scheduled to hold hearing of the matters today, deferred the date of hearing to November 17 following appeals seeking time from the lawyers concerned for taking preparations.
The three review petitions were filed by BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and five conscious citizens with the Appellate Division earlier to turn down its 2011 verdict that scrapped the non-party caretaker government system.
All the three petitions were included as item 42 for hearing in the cause list of the apex court today.
Appearing for the state, Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman told the apex court that there are proper grounds in the review petitions which are involved with greatest national and public interest.
The petitions need to be examined before the court and therefore time is needed for preparation, he said.
Petitioners’ lawyers also agreed with the attorney general.
On October 23, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Secretary General Miah Golam Parwar submitted a petition through its lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir seeking necessary directives to reinstate the caretaker system.
In the petition, he said the national elections held in 2014, 2018 and 2024 have demonstrated that holding any fair election is not possible under any political government.
Earlier, two similar review petitions were filed with the Appellate Division in connection with the same issue.
One of the previous two review petitions was filed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on October 16 seeking restoration of the 13th amendment of the constitution that had introduced the caretaker government system.
The first review petition was lodged on August 27 by five prominent citizens including Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of rights organisation Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik. They in the petition said that the caretaker government system had been introduced through political consensus of the people and therefore, it has become a basic structure of the constitution, which cannot be scrapped.
The Appellate Division verdict that had cancelled the 13th amendment of the constitution is self-contradictory as the court in its short verdict said that the next two national elections (10th and 11th parliamentary elections) could be held under the caretaker government, but this directive was not mentioned in the full judgement, they said in the petitions.
The four other petitioners are Tofail Ahmed, M Hafizuddin Khan, Md Jobirul Hoque Bhuiyan and Zahrah Rahman.
Filing of the review petitions came in the wake of the student-led uprising that ousted the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5, leading to her fleeing to India and the subsequent formation of an interim government under Professor Muhammad Yunus on August 8.