Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday summarily rejected a writ petition filed for seeking its directive on the authorities concerned to formulate a law for formation of the Election Commission in terms of the Article 118(1) of the Constitution.
The HC bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah passed the order saying that the court wouldn’t direct the Parliament to formulate any law.
Supreme Court lawyer and Secretary General of Bangladesh Congress, a political party, Md Earul Islam, filed the petition on October 16 this year. Mr Earul Islam himself appeared in the hearing on behalf of his petition, while attorney general AM Amin Uddin represented the state.
The petitioner said he would move an appeal in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the HC order.
“There is a constitutional mandate for formulating a specific law for constitution of the EC. But all the governments of the country have not made any law in the last 50 years,” he said.
Earul Islam, in the petition, said that the government appoints the election commissioners in an arbitrary manner without formulating the law which is a violation of the Constitution.
Article 118 (1) of the constitution says, “There shall be an Election Commission for Bangladesh consisting of the Chief Election Commissioner and not more than four Election Commissioners and the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (if any) shall, subject to the provisions of any law made in that behalf, be made by the President.”
During hearing of the Petition, Attorney General AM Amin Uddin opposed the writ petition, saying that the HC has no jurisdiction to order the parliament to formulate any law.
All the successive governments since the independence of the country chose not to finalize any law for the formation of a transparent election commission. As a result, the appointment of CEC and other commissioners of the EC in a very nontransparent manner raise questions again and again.
A new election commission has to be formed by February, 2022 as the tenure of the incumbent chief election commissioner and four other commissioners’ ends in that month. In this situation, the political corners are continuously demanding to make a policy or to enact a law before appointing the new election commissioners. But Law Minister Anisul Huq recently repeatedly said the next Election Commission will be formed through a search committee.
