The High Court has questioned the constitutionality of giving validity to a particular law formulated during HM Ershad’s Martial Law Administration as it was held unconstitutional by the Appellate Division.
The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar issued a ruling yesterday, seeking explanations from the government in four weeks as to why giving validity to the Acquisition and Requisition of the Immovable Property Ordinance, 1982 should not be declared unconstitutional.
The court passed the order following a writ petition filed by four siblings.
The petitioners alleged that the government, in a notice served under the law, had informed them about acquiring their 0.69 acres of land to implement a project for the construction of Chittagong City outer ring road.
The bench also ordered to maintain a status quo order on the land, Deputy Attorney General Al-Amin Sarker told the Dhaka Tribune.
In 2011, in the case of Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, the Appellate Division scrapped the laws passed between March 24, 1982 and November 11, 1986 when Ershad had ruled the country under martial law. But at the move of the government, the president, on January 21 last year, gave validity to the laws saying that those were important for the rule of law and protecting the people’s rights.
The same bench on July 31 last year issued a similar kind of ruling. But hearing on the ruling has yet to be held.
