DHAKA: The High Court on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to deactivate the unregistered mobile SIM cards without delay.

An HC bench of Justice Mirza Hossain Haidar and Justice M Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after a preliminary hearing on a writ petition filed for public interest.

The court also issued a rule to explain within four weeks why the order should not be given to the mobile operators to stop selling the unregistered SIM cards.

Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, secretaries of Home Affairs Ministry, Law Ministry, and Post and Telecommunication Ministry, and chief executive officers (CEO) of Grameenphone Limited, Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited, Teletalk Bangladesh Limited, Robi Axiata Bangladesh Limited, Airtel Bangladesh Limited, and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited were made respondents to the rule.

Supreme Court lawyer JR Khan filed the petition while Barrister Badruddoza Badal conducted the hearing.

Badal told the journalists: “There are 70 lakhs unregistered SIM cards in the country. Therefore, government is being deprived of taxes and illegal activities including extortions are being carried out through using these SIM cards too.”

Considering these matter, the writ was filed, he added.

BDST: 1700 HRS, APR 01, 2014