Five government high officials, among six, appeared before a High Court (HC) bench yesterday in connection with a contempt of court petition.
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) filed the contempt petition with the HC against them for providing no objection certificate (NOC)to two toxic ships violating a court order.
The chairman of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) could not be present at the court due to the unrest at the port yesterday. The court directed the CPA chairman to appear before it on October 28.
The five officials, who appeared before the court, are Monwar Islam, director general of the Department of Environment (DOE), its Director (Chittagong Port) Md Zafar Alam, Director General of the Department of Shipping Rear Admiral Bazlur Rahman, its Chief Chemist Mosharraf Ashraf and Collector of Customs (Import) Golam Kibria.
An HC bench of Justice Md Imman Ali and Justice Obaidul Hasan exempted the five officials from their personal appearance following their separate exemption petitions.
Collector Golam Kibria offered apology to the court while the officials of the Department of Shipping, who granted the NOC for the import of the ships, have opted to contest the rule of the court.
The court also asked the officials to explain by October 28 what steps they have taken to stop entry of toxic ships into the country.
The toxic ships cannot be broken without environmental certificate, it said.
The court on September 30 issued a rule seeking explanation within 10 days why contempt of court proceedings shall not be drawn against them for issuing NOCs to import scrap vessels violating court orders.
The court stayed the operation of the NOCs for one month and directed the importers of scrap vessels to maintain status quo on dismantling the ships MV BADRI and MT BO.
Bela stated in the petition that the contemnors issued NOCs in connivance with the ship breakers that is a violation of the HC orders.
Senior lawyers Rafiqul Haque, Rokon Uddin Mahmood and Anisul Haque appeared for the respondents while advocate Rizwana Hasan and Iqbal Kabir appeared for Bela.