Dhaka-10 By-polls
Judge expresses embarrassment, declines to hear contempt charges
Staff Correspondent
The hearing on the High Court (HC) rule on the government and the contempt charge on four government officials over army deployment at polling centres in the Dhaka-10 by-polls was not held yesterday as a judge expressed 'embarrassment.'The HC division bench comprising Justice Abdul Wahab and Justice Zinnat Ara sent the case to the chief justice to take a decision after the junior judge, Justice Zinnat, declined to hear it without explaining the cause of her embarrassment. On June 27 last year, three candidates of the July 1 by-polls in the Dhaka-10 constituency, including Abdul Mannan of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, filed a writ petition seeking a government directive to deploy troops at all polling centres. The HC then asked the government to deploy army personnel at all centres, and issued a rule on the government to explain why it should not be directed to deploy members of the armed forces in line with the Election Commission decision. After the by-polls, defeated candidate Mannan brought contempt charges against four civil and military high-officials for violating the court directive on army deployment and filed a petition with the bench of Justice Wahab and Justice Zinnat. The four officials are Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Kamal Siddiqui, Home Secretary Omar Farooq, Defence Secretary KM Ehsanul Haque, and acting Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division Brig Gen Iliyas Iftekhar Rasul. Counsel for the petitioner advocate MK Rahman and Additional Attorney General AJ Mohammad Ali were present in the court yesterday.
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