Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Wednesday issued a rule upon the government to explain as to why the announcement of transport strike against the court judgment should not be declared illegal and as to why it should not be directed to take legal action against the strike caller.
Communication Secretary (Road Transport and Bridges Division), Home Secretary, Chairman of BRTC and BRTA, IGP, DG of RAB, President and Secretary of the Federation of Road Transport Employees and President and Secretary of Transport Owners’ Association have been made respondents to the rule which is returnable in three weeks. The HC also directed the government to take initiatives within 24 hours to restore normalcy in traffic sector.
The HC bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan passed the order after hearing a writ petition. The court ordered the respondents to submit a report within two weeks complying the court’s directives.
Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), a rights organization, filed the writ petition yesterday. Advocate Monzil Murshid took part in the hearing on behalf of the petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder stood for the State.
A trial court of Manikganj sentenced a bus driver named Jamir Hossain to life imprisonment in a case filed for road accident that caused death to Tareq Masud and Mishuk Munier, a film director and a journalist respectively, among others.
On February 27, a trial court of Dhaka gave capital punishment to another bus driver named Mir Hossain in a case filed on charge of killing a woman with truck over previous enmity at Savar. Unhappy with the court verdicts, the transport workers called country-wide transport strike.
HRPB filed the writ petition yesterday challenging the legality of calling strike against a court verdict.
In the mean time, a delegation of the government held a meeting with the transport owners and workers yesterday. After the meeting, the hartal was called off.
Hearing on the writ petition was held after the decision of lifting the strike. Deputy Attorney General Amit Talikder said in the hearing that as the strike has been lifted, so the petition had no effect.
Advocate Monzill Murshid said that the strike was called protesting a verdict of a court. It caused sufferings to crores of people. He also said there was no opportunity to call for strike protesting a verdict of a court. This was contempt of court.
Amit Talukder said that earlier the Supreme Court declared ‘hartal or strike’ legal in a verdict. In response, Monzill Murshid said that that verdict was passed in the context of strike of political cause. But this strike was not for a political cause. It was to protest a verdict. So directives are needed from the court.
