The Appellate Division has fixed 19 January for the review hearing concerning the reinstatement of the caretaker government system.
The decision was announced on Sunday (1 December), by a six-member bench headed by Chief Justice Dr Syed Refaat Ahmed, following an appeal for a one-month extension by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Earlier in the morning, Zainul Abedin, counsel for the BNP, submitted the extension application, which Jamaat-e-Islami's representatives echoed in court.
Addressing the petition, the Appellate Division noted the possible connection between this case and the ongoing legal proceedings surrounding the Fifteenth Amendment.
The bench further declared that the hearing on 19 January would proceed without any further allowances for delay.
Jamaat-e-Islami had previously filed a review petition on 23 October against the Supreme Court's verdict nullifying the Thirteenth Amendment, which had initially instituted the caretaker government system.
This petition was submitted by the party’s Secretary General, Professor Mia Golam Parwar.
Similarly, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir filed a separate review petition on 16 October challenging the same ruling.
In August, Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, also filed a separate review application against the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Thirteenth Amendment, introduced on 10 May 2011 to establish the caretaker government system, was declared unconstitutional by the Appellate Division.
However, the ruling, delivered by a bench led by former Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, permitted the next two general elections—the 10th and 11th—to be conducted under a caretaker government framework.
The court’s ruling had further stipulated that decisions regarding the selection of the chief adviser for a caretaker government should be reached through parliamentary consensus.
