The High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to stop scrapping of ships in the country until further order.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain passed the order suo moto after Tuesday’s explosion at a ship-breaking yard in Chittagong that killed four people.
The court asked the authorities concerned to relocate the ship which exploded to a secure place and to keep the ships, already imported for breaking, in such places so that they can be relocated at a short notice, and the officials concerned of customs and port authority can easily visit them.
It also ordered no unloading of materials from such ships until further order.
It ordered the Chittagong Port Authority chairman to institute a committee with three expert officials in seven days to investigate the reasons behind Tuesday’s incident.
The committee will need to investigate whether there was lack of safety measures or any violation of the court’s earlier order regarding the scrapping of ships.
The committee was also asked to investigate what measures had been taken to prevent such accidents in future and whether any negligent person had been brought to book or the victims were compensated.
The court also issued a rule asking the ship-breaking yard owner, Master Abul Kashem, also vice-president of the Ship Breakers Owners Association, to explain in two weeks why he should not be punished on charges of contempt of court for breaking ships at his shipyard despite the restrictions imposed by the court.
The court ordered him to appear before it on January 28 for the explanation.
The court passed the orders after the news being published by national daily newspapers on Wednesday on Tuesday’s incident.
‘This court is not against the import and breaking of ships but the ships for scrapping have to be free from any risk for health and security,’ the court said.
In another order, the same bench, however, issued a rule asking the government to explain in two weeks why it should not be directed to allow four imported ships, now in the outer anchorage in Chittagong, to enter the inner anchor.
The court issued the rule after hearing four writ petitions filed by three ship-breaking companies earlier this month.
The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association has opposed the petitions, saying that the four ships were not safe as they have no pre-cleaning and environmental clearance certificates.
Rokanuddin Mahmud and Anisul Haq appeared for ship breakers while Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Iqbal Kabir Liton stood for BELA.
The same court on December 15, 2010 ordered import of no ship for scrapping till the framing of necessary rules on ship-breaking in line with the directives it issued on March 17, 2009.
The bench had also given the government three more months to frame the rules.
It had also reprimanded the government for not framing the rules in violation of a verdict delivered by the High Court bench of Justice M Imman Ali and Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal on March 17, 2009.
No ship meant for scrapping will enter the Bangladesh territory till the framing of the rules as the government has failed to frame the rules in 23 months, it said.
In the verdict, the court had asked the government to frame the rules in three months based on the judgement that required consideration of six laws — the Basel Convention 1989, Environment Conservation Act 1995, Environment Conservation Rules 1997, Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, Territorial Waters and Maritime Zones Acts 1974 and Marine Fisheries Ordinance 1983.
On December 15, 2010, the court ordered the government to report on the compliance of the verdict and the December 15 directives to the court in three months.
It directed the government to institute a committee to ensure the execution of the court orders to be passed from time to time in this regard and to issue clearance certificates or no objection certificates for the import of ships for scrapping.
Merely a committee composed of bureaucrats cannot stop the entry of hazardous ships into the Bangladesh territory, frequent accidents causing deaths of workers at ship-breaking yards and damage to the environment and ecology, the court observed.
It ordered institution of the committee with experts concerned, including experts in nuclear science, medical science, chemistry and maritime issues and environmentalists, journalists, labour leaders and rights activists.
Before allowing import and scrapping of any vessels, no damage to the environment and ecology and safety, security, health and rights of the labourers concerned must be ensured, the court ordered.
The court passed the orders after hearing a petition filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association, also petitioner of the writ petition in which the March 2009 verdict was given.
