Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Monday gave time till Tuesday morning to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to submit an application before the bench expressing “no confidence” in hearing her three writ petitions regarding cancellation of her nomination papers.
The HC bench of Justice J B M Hassan, which was assigned by the Chief Justice to dispose of the writ petitions, fixed 10:30 am today to place the petition before it.
Earlier in the day, Khaleda’s lawyers Advocate A J Mohammad Ali and Barrister Badrudaja Badal sought a one-day time for filing the appeal from the High Court bench saying that they would submit the application by 2:00 pm yesterday.
Barrister Badal told the bench that they could not complete the swearing affidavit on Khaleda Zia’s [no confidence] application although they have prepared the application on Monday. Justice J B M Hassan told the lawyers for Khaleda that they were not interested to move the writ petitions before his bench, although the bench considered those as an urgent election matter. After the court proceedings, Barrister Badal told the reporters that an application will be submitted today on behalf of Khaleda before the HC bench of Justice J B M Hassan expressing no confidence in his bench.
In the application, Khaleda Zia will request the bench to send her writ petitions to the Chief Justice, he said, adding that the BNP chief has no confidence in this bench as Justice J B M Hassan is junior to Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, who presided over a two-judge HC bench that passed dissenting orders on her petitions.
The bench of a judge, who is senior to Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, should hear the writ petitions, he said.
On December 13, Khaleda’s lawyers verbally expressed no confidence in the bench on behalf of Khaleda citing same reason. On that day, Justice Hassan asked the lawyers to place their written statement before him by Sunday.
On December 11, a two-member High Court bench passed dissenting order on three writ petitions filed by Khaleda Zia.
The senior judge of the bench ruled in favor of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s participation in the upcoming elections, while the junior judge disagreed with him.
Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, the senior judge of the bench, directed the EC to accept the nomination papers of Khaleda Zia and allow her to contest in the December 30 general elections. The judge also issued a rule asking the EC to explain as to why its decision on the nomination papers of Khaleda Zia should not be declared illegal.
Meanwhile, Justice Md Iqbal Kabir, the junior judge of the bench, disagreed with the senior judges’ order.
Following the dissenting order on three writ petitions, the High Court judges sent all the three appeals and the judges’ orders to the Chief Justice for assigning another one-member High Court bench for final hearing and disposal of the petitions. After receiving the dissenting order in detail, the CJ assigned a new bench for disposal of the petitions.
Khaleda Zia, a former Prime Minister, on December 9 filed the three separate writ petitions also seeking HC directives on the EC to accept the nomination papers so that she can run from Bogura-6, Bogura-7 and Feni-1.
