The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) today has given Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami two months to prepare a brief statement of an appeal filed by the party against a High Court (HC) verdict that declared the registration of the party with Election Commission “illegal”.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order.
Lawyer Joynal Abedin Tuhin and Advocate Matiur Rahman Akanda represented Jamaat-e-Islami while Barrister Tanya Amir appeared for the writ petitioner during the proceedings.
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Barrister Taniya Amir said the apex court in its order said the appeal of Jamaat-e-Islami would be defaulted (dismissed) if the party did not submit the brief statement within eight weeks.
Advocate Matiur Rahman Akanda said as per the court order, Jamaat-e-Islami will take part in the hearing and it is expected that the party will get back its registration.
In August, 2013, the High Court declared Jamaat’s registration illegal following a writ petition filed in 2009 by Bangladesh Tariqat Federation’s Secretary General Rezaul Haque Chandpuri and 24 others.
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In the petition, they said Jamaat was a religion-based political party and it did not believe in the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh.
Later, Jamaat-e-Islami filed the appeal with the apex court challenging the HC verdict.