The Supreme Court's Appellate Division has restored an appeal by the Jamaat-e-Islami seeking to regain its cancelled political registration.
A four-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, passed the order on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, lawyers said the ruling had opened the door for Jamaat to legally pursue reclaiming its registration and the party symbol of the balance scale.
Barrister Ehsan Abdullah Siddiq and Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir represented Jamaat in the hearing.
Earlier, in response to a writ petition, the High Court had cancelled and declared Jamaat’s registration illegal on August 1, 2013.
Subsequently, on December 7, 2018, the Election Commission issued a notice cancelling Jamaat’s registration.
Jamaat then filed an appeal against the High Court's ruling.
However, in November last year, the Appellate Division, led by then-chief justice Obaidul Hasan, dismissed the appeal due to the absence of Jamaat's main lawyer during the hearing. This upheld the High Court’s ruling declaring Jamaat’s registration invalid.
Following the fall of the Awami League-led government in August, Jamaat filed an application seeking to restore its appeal to regain its registration as a political party.
"We applied to restore the appeal, which had been dismissed for default," Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir said.
