Legal experts laid emphasis on Public-Interest Litigation (PIL) for safeguarding human rights (HR) and the environment as well. They made the call on Saturday from a seminar on the “role and importance of PIL to ensure rights of citizens” at the Supreme Court Bar auditorium here. Organized by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), the function was presided over by its president Advocate Manzil Murshid.
Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Justice Ahm Shamsuddin Choudhury, Indian jurist MC Mehta, Dhaka University professor Mesbah Kamal, senior lawyer Abdul Baset Majumder, and Abu Naser Khan, chairman of Poribesh Bachao Andolan, addressed the seminar.
Justice Md Habibul Gani, Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore, senior lawyer Yusuf Hossain Humayun, and Dhaka District Council Chairman Hasina Doula attended the seminar, among others. Dr Shirin in her speech lauded the role of HRPB in promoting the cause of public interest and human rights. She also hailed the judges and lawyers for their respective roles in promoting human rights.
“Judges of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh have made a bold pronouncement to uphold fundamental rights and the constitution,” she said.
“PIL can play its role as a key component to establish the rights for backward groups of the society that are oppressed and deprived,” the Speaker added.
As the guest speaker, Mahesh Chandra Mehta, popularly known as MC Mehta, a pioneer PIL lawyer from India, said, “Environment has no boundary, it has no language. When we talk about sufferings from environment pollution, the sufferings are same everywhere throughout the world.”
He called upon all, especially the lawyers to raise a battle against the people that pollute environment, grab rivers and lands, saying the lawyers are not ordinary citizens, and they are trained to do such a noble job.
Referring to the incidents of grabbing lands and rivers in and around Dhaka, Justice Shamsuddin said, “My heart bleeds seeing the way rivers are being grabbed.”
