Five eminent citizens on Tuesday filed a petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking a review of its May 10, 2011 verdict that declared election-time non-party caretaker government system illegal.
Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam of the Appellate Division earlier granted permission to Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik president M Hafizuddin Khan, Sujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumder, local government expert Tofail Ahmed, and individuals Md Jobirul Hoque and Zahrah Rahman to file the聽 review petition.
The petitioners were not parties to the original writ petition or the subsequent appeal that led to the scrapping of the caretaker government system.
In their petition, the citizens requested the restoration of the caretaker government system.
This move followed the ouster of Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 in a student-led mass uprising, her fleeing to India and assuming power of the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus on August 8.
The Appellate Division, headed by then chief justice ABM Khairul Haque, declared the 13th amendment to the constitution, which introduced the non-party caretaker government system, unconstitutional.
The 2011 verdict allowed for two more general elections of the 10th and 11th parliament under a caretaker government, excluding the participation of retired chief justice.
Justice Khairul Haque, however, in the full text of the verdict delivered after his retirement on September 16, 2012, dropped this observation for holding two more national elections under the caretaker system.
The review petition came after a Supreme Court lawyer, Abdul Mannan Khan, challenged the 13th amendment in 1999 through a public interest litigation writ petition, which the High Court dismissed on August 4, 2004. Mannan appealed to the Appellate Division in 2005.
The petition stated that the 2011 judgement severely impacted their democratic and constitutional rights, leading to three flawed elections in 2014, 2018, and 2024, depriving citizens of their right to free and fair elections.
Lawyer Sharif Bhuiyan, a partner of Dr Kamal Hossain & Associates partners, filed the petition on behalf of the five citizens.