The government on Tuesday approved a draft of the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025, scrapping nine provisions that were remnants of the much talked about Digital Security Act and Cyber Security Act.
It also gave final approval to the draft of the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 and the draft of the National Parliament Electoral Boundary Delimitation (Amendment) Ordinance 2025.
The decisions were taken in the weekly meeting of the advisory council chaired by chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at his office in Dhaka.
After the meeting, law adviser Asif Nazrul at a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy said that the advisory council approved a draft of the new Cyber Security Ordinance, replacing the much-criticized Cyber Security Act.
He said that the gazette notification of the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025 would be issued within this week after vetting by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
Noting that nine sections have been scraped from the previous laws, he said that about 95 per cent of the cases filed under the law were registered under the nine sections and those cases would be cancelled automatically from the day when the ordinance would come into effect.
Among the key changes, people鈥檚 access to the internet was recognised as a civic right for the first time, online gambling was banned, and repression on and sexual harassment of children and women in cyberspace were recognised as punishable offences.
Asif also said that releasing content on repression on and sexual harassment of women and children and spreading religious hatred, which could instigate violence, had been identified as punishable offences under the ordinance.
He said that committing crimes using artificial intelligence had been recognised as offences for the first time in South Asia.
Provisions related to the liberation war, the spirit of the liberation war, Bangabandhu, the national anthem and the national flag have been repealed as a huge number of cases were filed under the nine sections to harass people, he said.
Besides, the section related to the publication and dissemination of defamatory information has been completely repealed as many journalists have also become victims under this section, he said.
Noting that the draft of the ordinance was changed 24 times, the adviser also said that they came up with the final draft after discussing with the stakeholders, including the members of the civil society.
On December 26, 2024, the advisory council approved the draft but the draft drew criticism from different quarters as it retained much of the controversial provisions of its predecessors.
The council of advisers also gave final approval of the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 in a bid to modernise the judiciary, expedite civil case disposal, and curb procedural abuse.
鈥業t used to take decades to settle civil cases. Previously, lawyers used to read out the plaints in courts, which often took many dates for hearings just to present orally,鈥� he said.
鈥楴ow, the written plaint itself is sufficient; there is no need to read it out. Earlier, after receiving a verdict, a separate case had to be filed for execution. This is no longer necessary,鈥� he said.
鈥榃e have also simplified the summon issuance process and the summons can be sent using online tools such as WhatsApp or Messenger,鈥� he said.
The defendants can take time for six times under the existing law but now they cannot take time more than four times, he added.
On April 17, the government decided in principle in a cabinet meeting to amend the century-old Civil Procedure Code.
Meanwhile, the advisory council also granted final approval to the draft of the National Parliament Electoral Boundary Delimitation (Amendment) Ordinance 2025.
Asif Nazrul said that, during the previous 鈥榝ascist鈥� regime, electoral boundaries were determined according to their own preferences, which led to various political parties raising complaints.
He said that the Election Commission was unable to proceed due to an interpretational error in the existing law related to boundary determination.
Now, the EC will be able to carry out its constitutional duty related to boundary redetermination as soon as the ordinance is gazetted, he said and added that the publication of the gazette was expected within a few days.
Chief adviser鈥檚 press secretary Shafiqul Alam said that the council of advisers also approved a proposal of recognising raw cotton as an agricultural product.
鈥楴ow it will be easy to get agricultural loans for those who want to produce raw cotton,鈥� he added.
