Staff Correspondent
The government on Tuesday appointed 286 judicial magistrates on election duties to deal with electoral offences and conduct summary trial in the 299 parliamentary constituencies going to polls on December 29.
The law and parliamentary affairs ministry assigned the judicial magistrates and sent a list of 286 such magistrates to the commission six hours inside the commission’s requisition.
As the Supreme Court rejected the move of both the home ministry and Election Commission to invest executive magistrates with powers to try electoral offences during the December 29 general elections, the commission on Tuesday sent a requisition letter to the government seeking judicial magistrates.
The commission on November 27 decided to empower executive magistrates to hold trials of electoral offences.
It sent a letter to the establishment ministry asking it to obtain Supreme Court permission for the implementation of the decision.
In the letter, the commission also mentioned the limitations of the executive magistrates to hold summary trials of electoral offences unless they were given powers to try the offences.
The home ministry on December 7 issued a circular on election security saying the divisional commissioners and district magistrates would take necessary steps to engage executive magistrates when the establishment ministry got the Supreme Court permission for giving them electoral offence trial authority.
The Supreme Court on Sunday rejected the move of both the home ministry to empower the executive magistrate with authority to try electoral offices.
The establishment ministry, later on Monday, appointed 715 executive magistrates. Of them 319 were authorised to try electoral offences ignoring the Supreme Court directives for engaging judicial magistrates to do the job.
The letter on the ‘engagement of executive magistrates and investing them with the powers of judicial magistrates’ said on requisition from the divisional commissioners, 319 Bangladesh Civil Service officials had been appointed executive magistrates investing them with the powers to run mobile courts under the Mobile Court Ordinance 2007.
Executive magistrates have no authority to award imprisonment for any offences and they can only fine individuals.
According to the Representation of the People Order, an individual could be jailed for two to seven years and fined for committing electoral offences on the polling day.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
