The provision for immunity outlined in Section 9 of the Quick Rental Power and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010, has been deemed illegal by the High Court (HC).
An HC bench comprising Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury delivered the ruling on Thursday (14 November).
Following a hearing on a rule issued to examine why the immunity granted under Section 9 of the Quick Rental Energy Act should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional, the High Court set the verdict date for Thursday (7 November).
Advocate Dr Shahdeen Malik represented the petitioner, accompanied by Barrister Cynthia Farid.
Under Sections 9 and 6(2) of the Quick Rental Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010, no legal proceedings or petitions can be filed in court against any actions of rental and quick rental power plants.
A rule was issued challenging these provisions following an initial hearing on the petition before the High Court bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice AKM Rabiul Hasan on 2 September.
The final ruling was pronounced by the High Court today.
The petition argued that repeated electricity price hikes were driven by excessive costs and irregularities associated with rental and quick rental power plants, legitimised by the contested law, which prevents any future legal accountability for these irregularities.
Such a provision, the petitioner claimed, conflicts with public interest and the Constitution.
After the rule was issued, Dr Shahdeen Malik informed journalists, "The Quick Rental Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010, commonly referred to as the Quick Rental Act, has been challenged for its constitutional validity concerning Subsection 2 of Section 6 and Section 9. According to Section 6, the Energy Minister can independently negotiate and sign agreements with any individual or company for power production. This provision allows the minister to exercise discretion on whom to award contracts and at what cost. Meanwhile, Section 9 stipulates that questions regarding contracts and their value cannot be brought before the court."
Dr Malik further alleged that misuse of these provisions resulted in significant losses amounting to thousands of crores of takas during the previous government's tenure under the guise of quick rental power plants, thereby breaching constitutional principles.
