The Appellate Division has set today to hear a fresh petition seeking a stay on a High Court verdict that directed the government to restore a 30 per cent quota for descendants of freedom fighters in cadre service jobs.
The judge-in-chamber, Md Ashfaqul Islam, set the schedule on Tuesday after Dhaka University students Al Sadi Bhuiyan and Kishoreganj resident Ahnaf Sayeed Bhuiyan filed a petition in the Appellate Division on the same day seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict.
The students鈥� lawyer, Shah Monjurul Hoque, told reporters at the court compound that his clients聽 wanted reform of the quota system.
Monjurul Hoque said that the chamber judge also allowed the two students to file a petition against the High Court verdict as they were not part of the writ petition, following which the High Court restored the freedom fighters鈥� quota.
Anthropology department student Al Sadi Bhuiyan, the president of the Dhaka University Journalists Association, and Urdhu department student Ahnaf Sayeed Bhuiyan told 抖阴精品 they were not involved in the ongoing quota abolishment movement.聽
The fresh petition was filed amidst the countrywide anti-quota street movement that began on July 1.
The Appellate Division on July 4 set July 11 for hearing a government appeal that challenged the High Court verdict restoring the quota system.
It, however, refused to stay the High Court verdict, stating that the pressure of movement cannot change a Supreme Court verdict.
The High Court pronounced the verdict on June 5 after disposing of a writ petition filed by Ohidul Islam, son of freedom fighter Md Foyez Uddin from Rahimganj of Mymensingh, and six others in 2021 challenging the legality of abolishing a 30 per cent quota for the dependents of freedom fighters.
Ohidul, who studied English at the University of Chittagong, is now a teacher at a private college in Jatrabari, in the capital.
The High Court bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Khizir Hayat pronounced the verdict declaring a part of the government circular, issued on October 4, 2018, abolishing freedom fighters鈥� quota in the public service, illegal.
The government circular announced abolishing all 56 per cent quotas in the public service in the wake of street protests by public university students and jobseekers demanding reforms to the quota system introduced in 1972.
The dependents of the freedom fighters filed the writ petition stating that the government abolished the freedom fighters鈥� quota in violation of a High Court verdict on February 12, 2012, that directed the government to maintain a 30 per cent quota for the offspring of the freedom fighters in every appointment.
Senior pro-Awami League lawyer Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury is the chief lawyer for petitioners demanding quota restoration.