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The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) will hold hearing on Thursday (October 24) on two separate review petitions filed challenging its verdict that annulled the caretaker government system in the Constitution.
Justice Md Rezaul Haque, chamber judge of the Appellate Division, on Sunday sent the petitions to its full bench for hearing on that day.
The apex court's chamber judge passed the order after the petitioners' lawyers placed the matters for hearing.
One of the two review petitions was filed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on October 16 seeking restoration of the 13th amendment to the Constitution that had introduced the caretaker government system.
A similar petition was lodged by five prominent citizens including Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of rights organisation Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik on August 27 saying that the caretaker government system had been introduced through political consensus of the people and therefore it has become a basic structure of the Constitution, which cannot be scrapped.
The Appellate Division verdict that cancelled the 13th amendment to the Constitution is self-contradictory as the court in its short verdict said that next two national elections (10th and 11th parliamentary elections) could be held under the caretaker government, but this directive was not mentioned in the full judgment, they said in the petitions.
Other four petitioners of the second petition are Dr Tofail Ahmed, M Hafizuddin Khan, Md Jobirul Hoque Bhuiyan and Zahrah Rahman.
The review petitions were filed in the wake of the student-led uprising that ousted Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, leading to her flight to India and the subsequent formation of an interim government under Professor Muhammad Yunus on August 8.
Lawyers Zainul Abedin and Mohammad Shishir Manir appeared for Mirza Fakhrul while Sharif Bhuiyan and Tanim Hussain Shawon stood for other five petitioners during the hearing on Sunday.
A seven-judge full bench of the Appellate Division headed by the then chief justice ABM Khairul Haque, by a majority view on May 10, 2011, declared the 13th amendment to the Constitution (caretaker government) null and void.
After the verdict announced, the 15th Amendment Act was passed by the Jatiya Sangsad on June 30, 2011, addressing several issues, including the abolition of the caretaker government system. A gazette notification was published to this effect on July 3, 2011.
The parliament passed the 13th Amendment in 1996. Later Supreme Court lawyer M Salimullah (now dead) and others filed a writ petition with the High Court in 1998 challenging the legality of this amendment.
The High Court on August 4, 2004 declared the 13th amendment to the Constitution valid and constitutional.