Govt, EC asked to explain JS seat demarcation
The High Court (HC) yesterday issued a rule asking the government and the Election Commission (EC) to explain why the move to redo demarcation of parliamentary constituencies should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.
The rule issued by an HC bench comprising Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Farid Ahmed is returnable within two weeks.
The chief election commissioner (CEC) and two election commissioners, secretary at the EC Secretariat and principal secretary to the chief adviser were asked to return the rule.
The HC order followed two writ petitions filed by former BNP state minister Abdul Mannan and ABM Nurul Islam, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court. Hearing on the two petitions was held simultaneously.
Abdul Mannan's counsel Khondker Mahbubuddin Ahmed submitted before the court that as per the constitution, demarcation of constituencies has to be done before voter list is made.
"The EC has redrawn constituencies after completing more than 70 percent of voter list preparation, and that is why the gazette notification issued by the EC on April 29 for delimitation of 133 parliamentary constituencies is unconstitutional and illegal," he argued.
He alleged that in the name of delimitation of constituencies, the EC is killing time before holding the next parliamentary elections.
Advocate Nurul Islam argued that there is no necessity of delimitation of constituencies now due to time constraints.
Moving for the government, Additional Attorney General Salauddin Ahmed countered their arguments saying that no case can be filed with court against demarcation of constituencies until objections in this regard are disposed of.
"As per the gazette notification, anybody can submit objections to the EC against demarcation of constituencies, and no one can move to court against demarcations until the objections are disposed of," he said.
He also argued that the EC is not killing time by redrawing constituencies.
Abdul Mannan on Sunday filed the writ petition as a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging legality of the gazette notification issued by the EC on redrawing 133 parliamentary constituencies. Advocate Nurul Islam yesterday filed the writ petition on the same ground.
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