3-member HC bench formed to hear petition

Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain yesterday formed a three-member High Court bench for hearing a writ petition challenging registration of Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party.
The bench comprising Justice M Moazzam Husain, Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque may hear today the petition filed four years ago, Supreme Court sources said.
Formation of the three-member bench followed a request to the CJ from a two-member HC bench he constituted on March 5 to hear the petition.
Yesterday morning, the two-member bench comprised of Justice M Moazzam Husain and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque sent the writ petition to the CJ, saying,“Some legal and constitutional issues are linked with this petition”.
It had decided to send the petition to the CJ after the petitioner's counsel Tania Amir read out before it some portions of the petition.
The two-member bench was constituted following an application from Tania recently.
Jamaat's counsel Abdur Razzaq yeaterday prayed to the HC bench to adjourn hearing the petition for four weeks, saying that his client would reply to a rule earlier issued by the HC concerning legality of the party's registration.
On January 27, 2009, responding to the writ petition, an HC bench issued the rule asking the Election Commission and the Jamaat ameer and secretary general to explain why the party's registration with the EC should not be declared illegal. The petition was not disposed of then due to some factors relating to powers of HC bench.
On January 25, 2009, Bangladesh Tariqat Federation's Secretary General Rezaul Haque Chandpuri and 24 others filed the writ petition on November 4, 2008.