Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Thursday issued a rule upon the concerned bodies of the government to explain as to why the respondents should not be directed to take necessary steps as per the existing law and rules to issue Birth certificate to all street children of the country.
It also wanted to know from the respondents to explain as to why their inaction in not giving Birth Certificate to all street children of the country.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by a rights organization named “Sports for Hope and Independence (SHI)”.
Women and Children Affairs Secretary, Home Secretary and Office of the Registrar General of the Birth and Death Registration Authorities have been asked to comply with the rule within four weeks.
The High Court also directed the respondents to submit a report before the court within three months describing the necessary steps they have taken to issue Birth Certificate to all the street children of Bangladesh under the existing law and rules.
Sharmin Farhana, President of “Sports for Hope and Independence (SHI)” filed the writ petition on June 12 this year as a public interest litigation.
Barrister Tapas Kanti Baul appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the writ petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Bepul Bagmar represented the state.
Barrister Tapas said, “A team of street children of Bangladesh will participate in the upcoming event of ‘Street Child World Cup Doha 2022’ scheduled to be held in October this year. But when they applied for passport they had been refused to get it as they could not show any Birth Registration Certificate.”
“In this circumstance the Sports for Hope and Independence (SHI) filed an application on April 25 this year to the Birth and Death Registration Authorities for issuing their Birth Certificate. But the authorities didn’t make any answer to the application. Then the organization filed the writ petition,” added the lawyer.
Citing a 2014 statistics of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) the lawyer said more than 1.1 million street children in the country who have no birth registration certificates.
