Gulam Rabbani :
People’s normal life has been stuck for a long time due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has also impacted the trial proceedings of the country’s judiciary significantly.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has been running its activities through virtual system for more than one year to prevent the infections of the Covid-19 virus. Besides, the High Court is also functioning its activities on a limited scale only through online process after the second wave of the Covid-19 virus had started.
In this circumstance, the hearing on the more discussed and sensational cases which were awaiting for disposal in the Appellate and High Court Divisions is stuck as the courts are giving priority to hear the urgent matters only. Hearings of these cases will be held in the regular courts in physical presence after the end of the pandemic situation, sources said.
Hearing on the review petition of the sixteenth amendment verdict, Narayanganj 7-murder case, Jamaat’s registration cancellation case and some other cases is pending in the Appellate Division and Ramna Batamul carnage case, Nusrat murder case and some other cases are pending in the High Court Division.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin told The New Nation that he would try to take initiatives to hold hearing on the review petition of the sixteenth amendment verdict after the inception of the regular activities of the courts.
A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by the then Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on July 3 in 2017 upheld a High Court verdict that declared illegal the 16th amendment to the Constitution, dismissing a state appeal against it.
The government on December 24 in 2017 filed a review petition with the Appellate Division seeking cancellation of the full verdict of the Appellate Division that upheld a High Court judgment scrapping the 16th amendment to the Constitution. But the review petition is yet to be heard.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin recently said the state will take necessary initiative for the Supreme Court’s hearing on the review petition.
“We will move an application before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court when it starts regular functions after the end of ongoing Covid-19 pandemic for holding early hearing on the review petition regarding the 16th amendment of the Constitution,” he told reporters at his office on the SC premises.
The High Court in its verdict on Narayanganj 7-murder upheld the lower court conviction more than three years ago, but the verdict has not been executed yet as the Appellate Division has not disposed of the appeals filed by 20, out of total 35 convicts, in the sensational murder case.
Of the 35 convicts, the High Court On August 22, 2017 upheld death sentences of Narayanganj Awami League leader Noor Hossain and 14 others RAB members, including Narayanganj RAB Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad and officers Major Arif Hossain and Lieutenant Commander MM Masud Rana.
The HC reduced sentences of 11, two RAB members and nine accomplices of Noor Hossain, and upheld varying terms of sentences of nine other RAB members. Most of the convicts are now in jails.
Jamaat-e-Islami on December 12 in 2013 filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict that declared its registration with the Election Commission illegal making it unfit to contest the parliamentary polls.
In the appeal, Jamaat prayed to the apex court to scrap the HC verdict, saying the party amended its constitution in December last year in line with the Representation of the People Order (RPO), and the EC did not object to the amended version that time. But no initiatives were taken yet to hold hearing on the appeal.
Advocate Muhammad Shishir Manir who appeared in the court on behalf of Jamaat in the case said the appeal has not come for hearing.
A Feni court on October 24 in 2019 handed down death sentence to all the 16 accused, including a sacked madrasa principal and two expelled local Awami League leaders, over the murder of madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi in April, an incident that shocked the entire nation.
The documents of the murder case reached the High Court on October 29 in 2019 as a death reference to examine the trial court, but still awaiting for the hearing in the High Court.
