Sacked Awami League minister Abdul Latif Siddique yesterday appealed to the apex court after the High Court rejected his previous writ petition challenging the jurisdiction of the Election Commission to hold hearing over legitimacy of his parliament membership.
Earlier in the day, the bench comprising Justice Md Emdadul Haque and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar rejected the petition allowing the Election Commission to hear the dispute, Latif’s lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua said.
The lawyer then appealed to the chamber judge seeking a stay order on the EC’s notice. Chamber judge Justice Hasan Foyez Siddiqui fixed August 23 to hear the petition at the Appellate Division’s regular bench.
The EC on August 9 fixed August 23 to hear the matter. It sent a notice to the former minister and Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam to be present during the hearing at its Agargaon office.
Lawyer Jyotirmoy said that the Supreme Court and the EC set the same date for hearing but it would not make any trouble as the Appellate Division sits at 9am and the EC will hold the hearing at 11am.
“The court will decide whether Latif Siddique will have to attend the Election Commission hearing or not,” he said.
The EC began the process after the parliament speaker on July 13 sent them a letter on the matter. Shirin Sharmin Choudhury on July 5 received a letter from the Awami League about Latif’s termination from the party.
Latif filed the writ petition with the High Court on August 16 challenging the legality of EC’s notice.
Following his remarks on hajj, Tabligh Jamaat and the PM’s son, Latif was sacked from the cabinet on October 12 last year.