News Desk : dhakamirror.com
The High Court yesterday scrapped the provisions in a law that gave sweeping powers to upazila nirbahi officers to act as the chief executive officer and secretary of upazila parishads.
Delivering a verdict on two writ petitions, the HC at the same time ruled that the terminology “Upazila Proshason” cannot be used under the Upazila Parishad Ain. Terminology “Upazila Parishad” will be used from now on instead of Upazila Proshason.
The UNOs cannot exercise absolute powers in running the administration and other functions of the upazilas and they must be accountable to the upazila parishads led by their chairmen, who are the elected representatives of the people, said writ petitioners’ lawyers.
Section 33 (1) of the Upazila Parishad Ain-1998 says that UNOs will be the chief executive officers of upazila parishads and they will give all secretarial assistant to the parishads.
According to Section 33(2) of the act, the CEOs will implement the decisions of the parishads, comply with the financial disciplines and do other functions as per the rules.
Yesterday, the HC declared sections 33(1) and (2) of the act illegal and unconstitutional, observing that those are contradictory to articles 59 and 60 of the constitution.
Article 59 (1) of the constitution says, “Local government in every administrative unit of the republic shall be entrusted to bodies, composed of persons elected in accordance with law.”
Article 60 says, “For the purpose of giving full effect to the provisions of article 59, parliament shall, by law, confer powers on the local government bodies referred to in that article, including power to impose taxes for local purposes, to prepare their budgets and to maintain funds.”
The HC observed that since the UNO is not an elected representative of the people and he or she has not been made accountable to upazila parishad, which is a local government body, and therefore sections 33 (1) and (2) of the law are a violation of articles 59 and 60 of the constitution.
The bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Ahmed Sohel delivered the verdict after two writ petitions were filed in 2020 challenging the sections 33 (1) and (2) of Upazila Parishad Ain.
Petitioners’ lawyers Hassan MS Azim and Md Minhaduzzaman Leeton told The Daily Star that the UNOs will perform duties under the upazila parishads led by their elected chairmen.
The UNOs will remain accountable to the upazila parishads, and they cannot exercise absolute powers in the administration, they added.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Mehedi Hassan Chowdhury, additional attorney general, told this correspondent that the UNOs have been giving secretarial assistance to upazila parishads and they are always accountable to the parishads.
The HC has rejected the petitioners’ prayers for not to allow the UNOs become heads of the committees funded by the government in upazilas and provide security to upazila chairmen like the UNOs get, he said.
The additional attorney general said in another writ petition, they (petitioners) sought HC verdict to scrap the provisions of Upazila Parishad Ain that allowed removal and suspension of upazila chairmen or vice-chairmen and expressing no confidence on them, but the court did not allow their prayers.
Senior lawyer Ajmalul Hossain argued for the petitioners.
Details of the HC observations could not be known as its full text is yet to be released.
Several upazila chairmen, including Harun-Or-Rashid Howlader and Md Abdul Aziz, and Supreme Court lawyer Minhaduzzaman Leeton filed the petitions in 2020 and 2021 challenging the legality of different relevant sections of Upazila Parishad Ain.
