Staff Reporter :
A High Court bench on Monday dropped contempt of court hearing against Dhaka University’s Vice-Chancellor for noncompliance with its directive to hold Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election.
The bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice K M Hafizul Alam dropped the plea from hearing list after hearing out Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Advocate Manzill Murshid, the lawyer for the petitioner.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam opposed the case as the Dhaka University authorities have already taken a decision to hold the election by March next year.
Advocate Manzill Murshid questioned the jurisdiction of the Attorney General if he was legally able to take part in the hearing of the case.
At one stage, the court expressed their inability of hearing the case and dropped the case from the cause-list of the court.
Later, the Attorney General told the journalists that the DU authorities have already taken a decision to hold the DUCSU election by March next year. “But our national election is knocking the door. The DU VC said DUCSU election will be held by March next year. I informed the court this decision,” the AG also said.
“The court dropped the case from the list after hearing me and seeing the news in the newspaper in this regard,” Mahbubey Alam said.
Advocate Manzill Murshid said, “No lawyer can take part in the hearing before issuing a rule in the contempt of court case, as per law.”
“And Attorney General or any lawyer from his office does not have the jurisdiction to take part in the hearing in the contempt of court case. Most probably the court had dropped the case after hearing the heated argument of the both side,” Advocate Manzill also said.
Sumitra Das, a former student of DU, on September 12 filed the contempt of court petition praying a rule to ask the VC, Proctor and Treasurer to explain as to why they should not be penalised for violating its directive to hold DUCSU election.
On January 17 this year, the HC directed the respondents to hold DUCSU election in six months, following a writ petition filed by 25 former DU students.
The court also ordered the Home Ministry to provide necessary assistance to DU authorities to maintain law and order during the polls.
The HC order was officially sent to the respondents in February this year, the lawyer said, adding that the stipulated time for holding elections ended in August.
But, the authorities have not taken any step for holding the polls, which has created grounds for a contempt of court case against them, Advocate Manzill said.
The last election took place on June 6, 1990.
Students have been demanding the polls for a long time as DUCSU played a vital role in all democratic movements of the country in the past.
