The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a High Court verdict that asked the jail authorities not to put death sentence inmates any more in solitary confinement before the end of all legal processes.
The Appellate Division judge in chamber, Justice M Enayetur Rahim, granted the stay after hearing a petition filed on Tuesday by the secretaries of the ministries of home and law, inspector general of prisons, inspector general of police, and superintendents of the central jails of Chattogram, Sylhet and Cumilla, challenging the High Court verdict.
The chamber judge also asked the government authorities to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict.
The judge said that further proceedings of leave-to-appeal petition would be held by its full bench on August 25.
Appearing for the government authorities, attorney general AM Amin Uddin argued that the High Court verdict should be stayed as the death sentence recipient convicts after hearing the verdict from the media were creating chaos in the prisons demanding their relocation to the ordinary cells from solitary confinement.
The attorney general argued that the High Court Division had no jurisdiction to incorporate a new provision in the Prisons Act, 1894 banning confinement of death sentence prisoners in condemned cells immediately after the lower court sentenced them to death, although their appeals were pending with the Supreme Court.
He said that the prisons act allowed the jail authority to put death sentence recipients in separate cells for various reasons, including prevention of crimes, safety and medical reasons.聽聽聽
Amin Uddin said that the writ petition was filed with an ill motive to protect the death-row war crime convicts as the petitioners鈥� lawyer is a member of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami whose senior leaders were convicted of war crimes.
Lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir appearing for three condemned prisoners argued that the Appellate Division should not stay the execution of the entire High Court verdict before getting its full text.
He, however, said that an order might be passed on the jail authority to maintain status quo over the High Court verdict instead of staying it, if the death sentence prisoners create chaos in jails about the matter.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
The bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Bazlur Rahman issued the verdict on Monday after disposing of a writ petition filed by three condemned prisoners.
In September 2021, prisoners Zillur Rahman of Chattogram Central Jail, Abdul Basir of Sylhet Central Jail, and Shah Alam of Cumilla Central Jail challenged the legality of keeping them in solitary confinement before the completion of their trial process, including their appeals.
The High Court explained that the process included the disposal of appeals by the upper courts, the review petition, and the mercy petition to the president.
The High Court, in its verdict, asked the jail authorities to shift all condemned prisoners from isolated cells to general cells in two years.
