DHAKA: The High Court has again felt embarrassed to hear the rule over challenging the legality of holding parliament membership by the ruling Awami League leader of Feni Nizam Uddin Hazari.

Judge of the High Court’s lone bench on Monday (January 15) expressed embarrassment to hear the writ petition and sent the file of the case to the Chief Justice.

Lawyer of the petitioner Satya Ranjan Mandal confirmed the matter to the Banglanews. He said that now the Chief Justice will assign another bench for disposal of the rule.

Earlier on November 12 in 2017, another High Court judge also felt embarrassed to continue hearing on the writ petition. In that time, Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah also sent the file to Acting Chief Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah.

After receiving the file, Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah assigned the lone bench for hearing and disposal of the petition.

Earlier, two separate benches of the higher court also refused to hear the same petition after a two-judge bench delivered a split verdict.

On December 06 in 2016, the HC bench of Justice Md Emdadul Huq and Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan delivered the split verdict following the writ petition filed by Shakhawat Hossain Bhuiyan, a Jubo League leader of Feni.

Md Emdadul Huq, senior judge of the bench, passed the order declaring the Feni-2 constituency MP Nizam Uddin Hazari’s JS membership illegal while Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan rejected the writ petition.

Shakhawat Hossain Bhuiyan filed the writ petition with the HC on June 08 in 2014 following a newspaper report over forgery of the ruling party MP in getting early release from the jail in a criminal case. The newspaper report was published on May 10 in 2014.

The HC on the same day issued a rule asking the government and the Election Commission (EC) to explain why Nizam Hazari's seat should not be declared vacant.

Later, the office of inspector general of prisons submitted a report to the HC saying that Nizam Hazari had served jail terms for around 2.5 years less than he was supposed to in the arms case.

On August 16 in 2000, a Chittagong court awarded 10 years' imprisonment to Nizam Hazari in an arms case. He surrendered to the court on September 14, and was sent to the jail for serving the term.

But he was released on December 1 in 2005 through fraudulence. Nizam Hazari was supposed to be in the jail until September 13 in 2010. According to the law, he was not supposed to be eligible to run in parliamentary polls before September 2015.

Nizam Hazari provided false information to the EC during the 2014 polls.

BDST: 1245 HRS, JAN 15, 2018
EHJ