The High Court today stayed for six months the move by Dhaka University's Bangla department asking its students to keep their faces, including their ears, uncovered during examinations and presentations.

The court also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain in four weeks why the department's decision should not be declared illegal.

The bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Mohammad Ali issued the order and rule following a writ petition filed by three students of the department challenging the legality of the decision.

They submitted the petition through lawyer Md Faizullah Faiz on February 19, saying the decision is contradictory to their religious beliefs and independence and therefore is liable to be declared illegal.

Faiz told The Daily Star that the Bangla department on December 11 last year issued a notice asking the students to keep their faces, including their ears, uncovered during all examinations and presentations.

The female students who wear hijabs have been affected by the notice, he said.

In a landmark directive, the High Court has said the trial courts must hold separate hearings on sentencing in criminal cases.

The sentence in such a case must be pronounced at a later date.

The directive comes in the full text of a verdict, which observes that the number of death sentences at trial courts is rapidly increasing, and  the convicts have to suffer on death row for around six years, as they go through the appeal hearing process.

Legal experts believe these directives will significantly reduce the number of death and long-term imprisonment sentences awarded by trial courts.

Courts in Bangladesh do not hold hearings on sentencing. But it is practised in different countries so that punishments commensurate with the crimes. Legal systems in the US, the UK, and Australia follow methods that ensure consistency in sentencing.

Talking to this newspaper, criminal law expert Khurshid Alam Khan said the separate hearing on sentencing is definitely a positive step, and it would add a new dimension to the criminal justice system.

"However, I think a specific law or guideline must be formulated in this regard," he said.

Supreme Court lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir, who moved at least 120 death sentence-related cases before the HC, said, "This is a landmark judgement for this subcontinent. If this judgement is implemented, there will be a sea change in the criminal justice delivery system in Bangladesh.

"We have analysed 200 criminal cases and found that only 20 percent of the death and long-term imprisonment sentences are upheld, 50 percent are commuted and 30 percent of the convicts get acquitted."

As of November 1 last year, there were 2,162 convicts on death row in prisons across the country, said a report submitted to the HC bench.

The verdict mentions that the Supreme Court registrar general must issue a circular directing the courts and tribunals across the country to comply with the directive on sentencing.

The HC also asked the authorities concerned to send a copy of the judgement to the law secretary, so that necessary actions are taken.

Specifying how judgements will be delivered, the verdict says when the final argument of the parties is concluded and the judge has decided to award death or life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of years, the judge will express the decision in the open court or tribunal.

The judge will then fix a date, within the shortest possible time, for a separate hearing in order to determine the appropriate sentences.

The 84-page verdict by the HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Biswajit Debnath was released on Thursday.

"In such [sentencing] hearings, the trial judge shall balance between aggravating and mitigating circumstances with an eye on particular issues like the nature of sentence, circumstances of its commission, the age and character of the offender, the injury to the individuals or to the society, whether the offender is a habitual, casual or a professional offender, effect of punishment on the offender, delay in the trial and mental agony suffered by the offender during the prolonged trial…" reads the verdict.

The trial court judges must also consider the possibility of correction and reformation of the offender before pronouncing the judgements, it says.

"Taking away the life of an individual is a highly serious act and the courts of law are always reluctant to pass any such order, unless it is bound to do so by the Act of the Legislature."

Some countries have already abolished death sentences as the parties to a criminal proceeding are human beings. Humans are bound to make mistakes, and mistakes should not take away the life of an individual, it says.

"Indian Supreme Court in Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab (1980) 2 SCC-684, which is widely known as Bachan Singh case, has already given some strict guidelines to be followed and has categorically declared that death sentence may only be given in 'rarest of rare cases'.

"Different benches of the Indian Supreme Court have also expressed their view to hold separate sentencing hearings on the ground that it would be fairer to the parties concerned, in particular the accused, and such hearing is necessary for balancing between aggravating and mitigating circumstances."

On February 28 this year, the HC bench pronounced the judgement in a case filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act for the rape and murder of a third grader in Jashore in 2014.

The HC commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment for one convict and the other convict was already dead.

The full verdict released on Thursday mentions that the authorities concerned should immediately move the convict from death row to a general prison cell.

Law Minister Anisul Huq earlier said the government would formulate a uniform guideline to determine the types of sentences in criminal cases.

The 2400-megawatt Rooppur nuclear power project is likely to cost around $10 billion, more than three times the initial estimate of the government.

The project's Russian developer Rosatom has been dropping hints since last year that the cost may go up to $10 billion. A couple of years ago the government had estimated that the plant would cost between $2 billion and $3 billion.

The government and Rosatom have been saying that the cost of a power project like this cannot be specified before the entire project design is complete, which is scheduled to be done by the end of the year.

The government is in talks with Russia on financing the project, and its terms and conditions with a target to conclude the negotiation by November. Bangladesh is seeking 90 percent of the project financing from Russia. The loan will be repaid in 28 years with a 10-year grace period.

“We have not gone to the level of discussing exactly how much money would be required for the project,” said State Minister for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman, who has been spearheading the project since 2009. “As of now, we are trying to understand the components of construction.”

But similar power plants being built by Russia in different countries are coming with a price tag between $10 billion and $13 billion.

In December last year, Russia's state-run nuclear power company Rosatom signed an agreement to build a 2,000MW nuclear plant in Jordan for $10 billion.

Current nuclear power plant price trend

country	plant	price
Finland	1200 mw plant	$6.5b
Hungary	1200 mw x 2 units	$3.5b
Turkey	1200 mw x 4 units	$20b
South Africa	1200 mw x 8 units	$50b
Belarus	1000 mw x 2 units	$10b
Vietnam	1000 mw x 2 units	$9b

However, despite such a high cost, electricity generated at the Rooppur plant would actually be cheaper than that of coal-fired plants and a little costlier than that of gas-powered plants. This low cost is due to comparatively cheaper fuel and a long plant life.

“We will not accept any unrealistic pricing for this project,” said Yeafesh Osman when asked if he was aware of the global price trend.

“The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] is with us and there is an international practice. We will do our part of exercise before we conclude the financing negotiations in November."

With technical assistance from the IAEA, Bangladesh has already taken a few major steps towards implementing the country's first nuclear power project. Under a $500 million Russian loan, Rosatom began various studies since mid-2013 and completed several pre-construction steps.

The nuclear power project was conceived in the sixties and its site was selected on the bank of the Padma river in Rooppur back then.

However, there had been almost no progress in this regard, thanks to a lack of political will, until the Awami League came to power in 2009 with a pledge to implement the project. It is now one of the government's top-priority projects.

Last year, additional land was acquired at the plant site as the river had moved away from the original site in the last four decades.

Once operational, the plant would ensure significant energy diversity for the country which has so far been largely dependent on gas-based power. As the country's gas reserve is depleting fast, the government decided to build large coal-fired and nuclear power plants to ensure that the country's economic growth is not obstructed by an electricity crisis.

WHY THE COST HIKE?

"There is no universal answer to this simple question: What is the cost of an NPP [nuclear power plant] construction?” Alexander Uvarov, editor in chief of independent information site atominfo.ru told The Daily Star. This paper approached Rosatom with the query. The local office of the Russian company then forwarded Uvarov's message to The Daily Star.

According to Uvarov, the construction costs vary since all nuclear power plants are tailor-made.

Uvarov noted that type of reactor, site conditions and safety requirements directly affect the price. Using a powerful reactor would make each kilowatt of electricity cheaper than that of smaller reactors.

If the plant is located in an earthquake zone, the construction cost would go high. Additional safety installations would also add up to the cost.

In addition, lack of qualified nuclear power engineers, enterprises, employees would increase the project cost.

“So, what is the cost of an NPP construction? The French will remain for a long time global leaders in terms of [high] cost. Their reactors, which they build in France and Finland, will cost about 8.5 billion euro ... Other nuclear technology suppliers still try to keep down the cost ranging between 4 and 6 billion dollars per reactor,” he said, adding that in case of Rooppur, the price could be determined only after all terms and conditions for construction and development of nuclear infrastructure are finalised in the general contract.

3RD GEN REACTOR

Through the last two year's exercise, the government and Rosatom have agreed to use two units of Russia's latest third generation water-water-energetic reactor VVER-1200 in Rooppur. The first one would be installed by 2020-21, and the second one a few years later, while the physical construction of the plant begins next year.

The VVER-1200 has a service life of 60 years which makes the power generation cost very cheap. This reactor has four layers of safety, including core melt trap (or core catcher), passive system for heat removal from the reactor, and passive system for heat removal from the steam generator.

The core melt trap is the top safety feature to minimise consequences in case of severe accidents. Rosatom will supply the nuclear fuel and take care of the spent fuel rods.