Staff Reporter :
The High Court will deliver its verdict on Tuesday on a writ petition filed challenging the legality of the SIM/RUIM registration through the biometric process.
An HC bench comprising Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice AKM Shahidul Huq fixed the date on Sunday on completion of the hearing of a rule issued earlier in this regard. Barrister Anik R Haq along with Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua stood for the petitioner while Fatema Anwar argued for mobile operator Robi and additional attorney general Murad Reza and assistant attorney generals Arbinda Kumar Roy and Jesmin Sultana represented the state. On March 14, the High Court issued a rule upon the authorities concerned to explain why the biometric registration of subscriber identity modules (SIMs) and Removable User Identity Modules (RUIMs) should not be declared illegal.
The home, law and telecommunications secretaries, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BRTC) and mobile phone operators-Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, Airtel, Citycell and Teletalk-were asked to come up with their explanations within two weeks.
On March 9, lawyer SM Enamul Haque filed the writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the SIM/RUIM registration through the biometric process.
In the petition he said that subscribers need to give fingerprint for registration, activation and verification of SIMs and RUIMs as per a BRTC instruction.
Noting that foreigners posses the ownership of five of the six mobile phone operators that count for 97 percent of customers. The writ petition was filed on apprehension that one’s privacy and neutrality will be violated in the biometric system. The SIM/RUIM registration through the biometric system formally began on December 16 last which is supposed to end within April.
