Staff Reporter :
The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday stayed the High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust Case till next Sunday.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after hearing two separate petitions filed by the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) seeking stay on the HC order.
The SC also directed both the parties to file leave to appeal petitions by this time.
Later, the lawyers of the BNP Chairperson filed a petition with the Supreme Court to vacate its stay order on the High Court ruling.
After receiving the petition, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique forwarded it to the apex court’s full bench for its hearing on next Sunday.
The government and the Anti-Corruption Commission filed two separate petitions on Tuesday, a day after the HC granted bail to BNP chief.
The Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hassan Foyez Siddique forwarded the two petitions to the full bench for hearing.
On Wednesday, the ACC lawyer Khurshed Alam Khan told the court that they wanted to file leave to appeal petition against the bail order. But they could not file this as they did not receive the certified copy of the HC order.
After hearing ACC lawyer, the Chief Justice passed the order staying the HC order till Sunday and directed the appellants to file leave to appeal petitions by this time.
Then Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Zainul Abedin said to the Chief Justice, “You have passed order after one side hearing. It may create wrong perception among people about the Supreme Court.”
In response to the Zainul Abedin’s statement the Chief Justice said, “We do not care for public perception. Let the court continue as a court.”
Then Advocate A J Mohammad Ali, another lawyer for BNP chief, told the court, “You passed the order without hearing us.”
The court said, “We passed an interim order. There is no need to hear you.”
“We will hear you on Sunday,” the court said.
At that time, the Pro-BNP lawyers, who were present in the court, expressed their anger. At one stage they left the courtroom.
Later, they demonstrated in the court-corridor and demanded Chief Justice’s resignation.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam was also present in the court at that time.
After the court order, Advocate Zainul Abedin said in a briefing that the court never passed such an order in the past.
“Such an order is unprecedented. No Chief Justice passed such order without hearing the defense in the past. We are shocked by this order,” also said Advocate Zainul.
On March 12, the High Court bench comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia for four months in the case.
On February 8, Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years on February 8 in connections with Zia Orphanage case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2008.
Judge of the Special Court-5 of Dhaka also sentenced Khaleda Zia’s eldest son and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, and four others to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Tk 2.10 crore each.
