5th amendment hearing Jan 3

The Supreme Court yesterday fixed January 3 for hearing appeals against the High Court verdict that declared illegal the fifth amendment of the constitution endorsing late president Ziaur Rahman's takeover and previous acts from August 15, 1975.
Justice SK Sinha, chamber judge of the Appellate Division, set the date upon separate prayers moved by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and barrister Ajmalul Hossain, who had earlier moved a writ petition in the HC.
Upon the writ petition, the HC on August 29, 2005, in a landmark verdict declared illegal the fifth amendment to the constitution, meaning the regimes of Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed, Abu Sadaat Mohammad Sayem and Maj Gen Ziaur Rahman from August 15, 1975 to April 9, 1979 were illegal.
Masudul Alam filed the writ petition with the HC on behalf of Bangladesh Italian Marble Works Company to reclaim a cinema hall in the capital's Waizghat it had lost during the martial law rule.
However, the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government filed a leave-to-appeal petition with the SC against the HC verdict.
The SC then stayed the operation of the HC verdict.
The present government in May this year prayed to the SC for withdrawal of the leave-to-appeal petition and upholding the HC verdict.
The writ petitioner also submitted an application to the apex court to vacate its stay order.
But BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and three Supreme Court lawyers --Tajul Islam, Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan and Munshi Ahsan Kabir -- filed two leave-to-appeal petitions with the apex court against the HC verdict.
The appeals are now pending with the apex court.