The High Court on Tuesday fixed Wednesday for passing an order on a writ petition challenging the legality of a government gazette that declared Ishraque Hossain as mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation, based on a lower court鈥檚 verdict.
The bench of Justice Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Justice Debasish Roy Chowdhury set the date after holding a hearing on the petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer and DSCC resident Mamunur Rashid.
Deputy attorneys general Mahfuzur Rahman and Khan Ziaur Rahman opposed the petition, arguing that Mamunur lacked locus standi to file the writ, asserting that only the Election Commission has the legal authority to contest disputes arising from local government elections.
Senior pro BNP lawyers Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Kayser Kamal argued that Election Appellate Tribunal was appropriate authority to hear the appeal against the election tribunal鈥� verdict.
The petitioner鈥檚 counsel,聽 Mohammad Hossain, sought a stay on both the March 27 verdict of the Election Tribunal and the subsequent gazette notification issued by the Election Commission on April 27, which officially declared Ishraque the mayor.
In its decision, the Election Tribunal鈥攈eaded by Judge Md Nurul Islam, also joint district judge of Dhaka First Court鈥攈ad declared Ishraque the elected mayor and directed the Commission to publish the gazette within 10 days.
The writ petition also sought a rule from the High Court asking the government and the Election Commission to explain why they should not be restrained from administering the oath of office to Ishraque.
Mohammad Hossain requested the court to explain why the tribunal judge should not face disciplinary action for allegedly delivering a 鈥榝raudulent鈥� verdict without conducting a proper ballot recount or verification.
Advocate Mohammad Hossain alleged that the tribunal bypassed electoral procedure and fundamental legal norms by declaring Ishraque mayor without verifying ballots cast in the DSCC mayoral election held on February 1, 2020.
