SC turns down appeals
Staff Correspondent
The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday rejected appeals filed by 11 parliamentary aspirants against the High Court (HC) rulings, which upheld the Election Commission’s (EC) decisions cancelling their candidature on different grounds.
Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim passed the orders after hearing arguments from both sides.
BNP’s MA Hannan of Chandpur, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan of Khagrachhari and Hafiz Ibrahim of Bhola, Awami League’s ASM Firoz Alam of Barisal and Sazzatuj Jumma of Jhenidah and Liberal Democratic Party’s M Yakub Ali of Chittagong lost their candidatures.
The others, all independent aspirants, are Md Jahur Hossain, Yusuf Ali Chisty, Mahmud uz-Zaman, Hafez Habib Ullah and Sarfuddin Ahmed.
EC’s counsel Shahdeen Malik told The Daily Star that the SC rejected their appeals on grounds that there was no scope to move writ petitions at the High Court against the Election Commission’s decisions regarding holding of the polls if the questions of quorum non-judice and malice in law are not raised.
These candidates can no longer contest the December 29 poll.
Shahdeen Malik also said that the HC earlier upheld EC’s decisions cancelling the nomination papers of these candidates on different grounds, including convictions against them in criminal cases and for being bank loan defaulters.
Meanwhile, the chamber judge yesterday rejected an appeal filed by Syed Abul Hossain Babla, a grand alliance candidate for Dhaka-5, who was seeking allocation of the ‘boat’ as election symbol for himself.
The judge also rejected the appeal of BNP candidate Abdul Gafur of Comilla-10 who appealed for the ’sheaf of paddy’ election symbol.
Mohammad Shahjahan, a BNP candidate for Chandpur-4 constituency, told the Daily Star yesterday that the chamber judge yesterday rejected an appeal filed by his rival, BNP candidate Harun-ur Rashid, to stay the High Court order, which had earlier directed the EC to accept Shahjahan’s nomination paper.
“Since the Appellate Division has rejected the appeal filed by Harun-ur Rashid, I am now the only valid candidate from BNP for the Chandpur-4 seat,” Shahjahan said.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
