The High Court on Thursday ruled that there is no opportunity to say that the nomination paper of mayoral candidate Jahangir Alam in Gazipur City Corporation elections is valid.
He was a loan defaulter till the submission day of the nomination paper which made him ineligible according to Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009.
The observation was made in a five-page observation released signed by a High Court bench comprising Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam on Thursday.
According to the verdict, Jahangir Alam's name was in the CIB report on the day of submission of nomination papers on April 27.
On May 2, he received a stay on the CIB report. However, section 9 (2) of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009 states that if a person fails to pay any loan or installment received from a bank or financial institution on the day of submission of nomination papers, then the mortgagor or guarantor will be considered as a defaulter in addition to the borrower.
Earlier, the returning officer of Gazipur announced the cancellation of Jahangir's nomination paper after the scrutiny on April 30.
Later, Dhaka Divisional Election Commissioner Md Sabirul Islam rejected Jahangir's appeal against that decision. As a result, the decision of the returning officer to cancel Jahangir's nomination for the post of mayor was upheld.
After being rejected, Jahangir moved the HC, challenging the cancellation.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Monday dismissed his writ petition challenging the legality of cancellation of his nomination paper for the mayoral post in the upcoming GCC election.
However, his mother Zaida Khatun's nomination was declared valid.
Jahangir was the guarantor of an industrial organization. He was declared a loan defaulter along with the organization, the returning officer said.
Though the former mayor and his counsel submitted documents demonstrating paying off the loan along with the nomination paper, the returning officer cancelled his nomination during the scrutinization.
