Khaleda's plea hearing deferred till Jun 18

The High Court today deferred until Wednesday (June 18) hearing two writ petitions that challenged the appointment of a trial court judge who indicted BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in two corruption cases.

The petitions were filed against the appointment of the judge of Special Judge's Court-3 of Dhaka, Bashudev Roy, who on March 19 indicted Khaleda and eight others in Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust corruption cases.

The HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque today deferred the date of hearing after Khaleda’s lawyer filed a petition before the court seeking time.

AJ Mohammad Ali, a counsel for Khaleda, told the court that they have filed the time petition as they are yet to receive the certified copy of the dissenting order on the petitions by a division bench.

Later, Justice Hoque ordered the section concerned of the HC to supply the certified copy of the dissenting orders to the counsels for Khaleda in 24 hours.

Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain yesterday sent the writ petitions to the High Court bench of Justice Hoque for disposal following split orders on the pleas.

On May 25, Justice Farah Mahbub stayed the proceedings of both the cases for three months and issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why its gazette notification published without fixing the jurisdiction of the special court should not be declared illegal.

However, Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo, the other judge of the bench, summarily rejected the prayers, saying the petitions had no substances.

Khaleda Zia on May 12 filed two separate writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the appointment of Bashudev Roy and she prayed to the high court scrape the proceedings of the case against her.

After the chief justice two writ petitions to the new bench, Justice Hoque set today for hearing the petitions.