Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will hold a hearing on an appeal against the High Court verdict that rejected a writ petition filed by renowned photographer Shahidul Alam challenging the legality of a case filed under Section 57 of Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006.
The apex court on Monday asked Shahidul Alam to file a leave to appeal petition with the court in four weeks against the HC verdict delivered on December 14 last year.
A six-member full Bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order during hearing of a petition filed by Shahidul Alam seeking stay on the investigation of the case against him.
Barrister Sara Hossain appeared in the hearing on behalf of Shahidul Alam while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the State.
Barrister Sara Hossain said the case was filed against Shahidul under Section 57 of the ICT Act. However, the section was scrapped after formulation of the Digital Security Act in 2018.
“The government then said among the cases filed under section 57 which were not set for trial can no longer be investigated under this section. Shahidul’s case also did not go to that stage. That is why we filed a writ challenging the legality of the investigation in the case,” added the lawyer.
The High Court on December 14 last rejected the petition filed by Shahidul Alam. The bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil delivered the verdict, saying the writ petition is not acceptable against criminal case proceedings.
On March 3, 2019, Shahidul filed the writ petition challenging the legality of the case, in which he was imprisoned for 107 days.
In the petition, he sought stay on the proceedings saying that it was filed against him “in violation of his fundamental rights and by abusing the process”.
On August 5 in 2018, Shahidul, also the founder of Drik Gallery and Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, was picked up from his Dhanmondi home during a widespread demonstration for safe roads.
Police lodged the case against the 63-year old photographer under section 57 of the ICT Act and produced him in a Dhaka court the following day.
On November 15 in 2018, HC granted bail to Shahidul, while he was released from Dhaka jail on November 20.
