The High Court (HC) on Sunday summarily rejected a writ petition seeking to cancel the registration of the Awami League as a political party for the indiscriminate killings of students and other people during the anti-government protests in July and early August.
The HC bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Mahbub Ul Islam dismissed the petition as it was not maintainable before the court.
However, the HC bench assured the petitioner saying that the Interim Government would prosecute all the crimes. All crimes will be prosecuted, it added.
In its order, the HC bench observed that the petition was not maintainable as it failed to include the Awami League and the Election Commission as respondents, thus preventing a proper contestation of the case.
When questioned about the Awami League's alleged involvement in crimes during the student-led movement, petitioner Murad claimed that leaders and affiliated bodies of the party were engaged in criminal activities during the unrest.
The HC bench also observed that the Interim Government was committed to prosecuting those individuals responsible for the subversive acts.
Before the deliberation of the HC order, Asaduzzaman told the court that the person who submitted the writ petition has no locus standi (the right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court) to file such a petition as his organisation's constitution does not allow him to do so.
The Attorney General urged the HC to impose a cost on the writ petitioner for wasting the court's time by filing and moving the petition.
He told the court that there are many good leaders and workers in AL who believe in their ideology.
"We have seen that many political issues have been brought to the court in the past and we had to pay for that. The mass uprising that has recently taken place has also reached the judiciary. If something happens with the court, my heart bleeds as a lawyer. That is why politics should remain in the political field," he argued.
The Attorney General also said, "We have seen attacks on the Chief Justice's residence, which none of us wanted. Such an outpouring of anger took place in the context of the judiciary's patronage and injustice during past authoritarian regimes."
Arifur Rahman Murad Bhuiyan, executive director of rights organisation Sarda Society, filed the petition with the HC as a public interest litigation on August 19 seeking to cancel the registration of the Awami League as a political party for the indiscriminate killings of students and other people during the anti-government protests in July and early August.
The petition also prayed for a HC order to make the tenure of the current Interim Government three years and to change the names of the institutions which are in the name of former prime minister and AL president Sheikh Hasina.
The petition also sought to bring Tk 11 lakh crores laundered abroad back to the country and to transfer the officials who were appointed on contractual basis during the regimes of the previous AL government.
It was alleged in the petition that the party's involvement in the mass killings of students during the uprising from July 16 to August 5, which led to the fall of prime minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5.
During the hearing on the petition, Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman had earlier on August 27 argued for the petition's summary dismissal, stating that the NGO activist lacked the legal standing to request a ban on a political party.
He also emphasised that the Interim Government had no policy to ban political parties, as it would infringe upon fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, assembly and association.
He added that entertaining such a petition would risk tarnishing the judiciary's image.
Petitioner Arifur Rahman Murad Bhuiyan moved the petition himself.
