The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is set to hear the government appeal against the High Court verdict on quota in civil service recruitment at 10:00am today just as the curfew ends.
The lower courts across the country, however, will remain closed in Sunday鈥揗onday, in line with a government announcement declaring these two days as general holiday.
The Appellate Division rescheduled its opening time for 10:00am today from 9:00am and would operate judicial proceedings till 1:15pm, according to a press release issued by Supreme聽 Court registrar general Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan on Saturday.聽聽聽
The press release said that the High Court would, however, sit as per normal schedule at 10:30am to hear and dispose of only the urgent cases.
A number of senior lawyers questioned the schedule, stating that it would not be possible for them to appear before the court at 10:00am, immediately after lifting of the curfew.
The government imposed a curfew across the country for an indefinite period from midnight past Friday after at least 67 people were killed on Friday taking the death toll to 112 in the past four days of protests for reform of quota in civil service recruitment.
Attorney general AM Amin Uddin told reporters at his office on Saturday that at about 10:00am today the Appellate Division immediately after lifting of the curfew would hear two separate petitions鈥攐ne was filed by the government on June 9, and the other was filed by two Dhaka University students on July 9 during the anti-quota movement.
He said that the Appellate Division chamber judge on July 18 advanced the date of hearing to July 21 from the previously scheduled date of August 7 through special arrangements during the courts鈥� vacation, following an instruction to the attorney general from law minister Anisul Huq.
The attorney general also expected that the Appellate Division would give its decision in the quota case on the same day.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina during her address to the nation on July 18 urged the student protesters to keep patient until the Appellate Division delivered its verdict.
She also assured the students of getting justice in the quota case.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
The government sought cancellation of the High Court鈥檚 June 5 verdict that asked the government to maintain 30 per cent quotas for the decedents of freedom fighters. It also directed the government to maintain 鈥榙istrict, women, tribal, physically challenged鈥� quotas and publish a notification in this regard as soon as possible, preferably within three months.
鈥楬owever, this judgement will not create any bar upon respondents if they change, reduce or increase the ratio or percentage of the quota relating to the aforesaid criteria and when necessary,鈥� the verdict said.
The High Court delivered the verdict 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 cancelling 30 per cent quota for the descendants of freedom fighters.聽聽
The cabinet division issued a circular on October 4, 2018 abolishing all the 56 per cent quotas in the public service jobs in the wake of street protests by the public university students and jobseekers, demanding reforms to the quota system introduced in 1972.
Until the abolition, nearly 56 per cent of government jobs were reserved for candidates from various quotas鈥�30 per cent for freedom fighters鈥� children and grandchildren, 10 per cent for women, 10 per cent for people of underdeveloped districts, 5 per cent for members of indigenous communities, and 1 per cent for physically challenged people.
On November 5, 1972, the then government through an executive order introduced 30 per cent quota for freedom fighters and 10 per cent for women in the jobs at the government, semi-government, defence and nationalised institutions.
The High Court verdict, which was pronounced on June 5, prompted students and jobseekers to take to the street across the country from July 1.
The cabinet secretary on July 16 filed a regular petition with the Appellate Division seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict that asked the government to maintain the quotas.
The secretary also prayed for extension of the status quo issued by the Appellate Division on July 10 enabling the government to recruit officers without maintaining quotas following the cabinet division鈥檚 2018 circular scrapping all quotas.
An Appellate Division bench chaired by chief justice Obaidul Hassan on July 10 issued the status quo order for four weeks asking the government to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict by August 7.
It also adjourned until August 7 hearing of the two provisional petitions鈥攐ne filed by the cabinet secretary on June 9 seeking a stay of the High Court verdict and the other by two students on July 9 seeking quota system reform.
The chief justice, earlier on July 4, refused to stay the High Court verdict on quota maintenance, stating that the Supreme Court verdict could not be changed under pressure of a street movement.
Earlier on June 9, the Appellate Division鈥檚 chamber, after hearing the government petition, refused to stay the High Court verdict and set a full court鈥檚 hearing on July 4 on the grounds that the High Court verdict was not published at that time.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
The High Court on July 14 published its 27-page full verdict on the quota system.
The court in a short verdict on June 5 declared illegal a government circular issued on October 4, 2018, abolishing all quotas in recruiting civil service employees.