The High Court yesterday summoned the Jahangirnagar University registrar to appear before it on May 28 for not taking action against its public relation director for issuing a press release.
The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain, on its own motion, also issued a rule asking why Registrar Abu Bakar Siddique should not be punished for contempt of court.
On April 25, the university’s public relation office issued a press release on the conversion into Islam of a fourth grade employee along with his family.
The court on April 30 issued rule on its own asking the university authorities to explain why they should not be directed to take legal action against the PRO director for issuing the press release.
The vice-chancellor, university Syndicate, the registrar and the PRO director were asked to explain their stance by yesterday.
However, instead of replying to the rule, the registrar published an advertisement in a daily newspaper mentioning withdrawal of the press release.
The same bench on May 11 summoned the editor, the publisher and a columnist of the daily Al-Ihsan, a newspaper that preaches the ideology of Rajarbagh “Pir,” for publishing a column condemning the court for issuing rule over the press release. It also issued a rule asking why the trio should not be punished for contempt of court and why the declaration of the newspaper should not be cancelled.
A column published in the newspaper said creating obstruction in publishing news of professing Islam was a grave conspiracy of the antagonist quarter. The Muslims of the country were shocked as the High Court issued rule for making the news public.