In a controversial ruling, the Supreme Court docket of Bangladesh on Sunday ordered the reinstatement of the novel Islamist occasion, Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration as a political occasion, overturning a earlier Excessive Court docket judgment that had declared the occasion’s registration unlawful.
Based on native media reviews, the highest court docket additionally directed the Election Fee (EC) to implement the order directly.
Nonetheless, the court docket kept away from issuing any directive concerning the occasion’s electoral image, the “scales,” leaving that call to the discretion of the EC.
The decision was delivered by a four-member Appellate Bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, as reported by a number one Bangladeshi each day, The Dhaka Tribune.
This improvement comes simply days after the identical court docket acquitted Jamaat chief ATM Azharul Islam, overturning the demise sentence handed to him by the Worldwide Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for crimes in opposition to humanity throughout Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation Warfare.
The cost sheet had accused Islam of killing 1,256 individuals, abducting 17, and raping 13 ladies within the Rangpur area throughout the warfare.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s authorized battle to regain its political standing traces again to August 1, 2013, when the Excessive Court docket declared its registration unlawful in response to a writ petition.
The Election Fee adopted go well with by formally cancelling the registration by means of a gazette notification in December 2018.
Though Jamaat appealed the Excessive Court docket’s verdict, the Appellate Division dismissed the attraction in November 2023 as a result of absence of the occasion’s lead counsel.
In consequence, the Excessive Court docket verdict had remained in impact — till now.
The occasion’s current authorized resurgence adopted the ouster of the Awami League authorities, led by Sheikh Hasina, in a violent mass rebellion final 12 months.
Within the wake of the upheaval, Jamaat filed a contemporary petition looking for to revive its attraction and regain its standing as a registered political occasion.
In October, the Appellate Division accepted Jamaat’s petition, setting the stage for Sunday’s ruling.
The interim authorities underneath Muhammad Yunus, which assumed energy following the autumn of the Awami League, had earlier lifted the ban on Jamaat and its scholar wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, by means of a gazette notification.
These teams had been declared unlawful political entities underneath the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 by the earlier administration.
These radical parts performed a key position within the student-led agitation that led to the toppling of Sheikh Hasina’s democratically elected authorities.