BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has filed a review petition seeking the reconsideration of the Supreme Court's ruling that annulled the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which had introduced the caretaker government system.
This information was disclosed to journalists on Wednesday (16 October) by lawyers Zainul Abedin and Mohammad Shishir Monir. They further informed that Senior Advocate Zainul Abedin would hold a press conference at the Supreme Court Bar Auditorium on Thursday (17 October) to address the filing of the review petition.
Earlier, on 27 August, five prominent individuals, including Badiul Alam Majumder, secretary of Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) filed a similar petition seeking a review of the judgement that repealed the caretaker government system.
The other petitioners were Tofail Ahmed, M Hafiz Uddin Khan, Jobaerul Haque Bhuiyan, and Zahra Rahman.
The caretaker government system was originally introduced in 1996 through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, passed by the National Parliament. In 1998, Advocate M Salimullah and two other lawyers filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the legality of this amendment.
On 4 August 2004, the High Court Division dismissed the writ and declared the caretaker government system valid.
Following this, a special bench of the High Court delivered its final ruling in 2004, allowing the petitioners to directly appeal the decision.
Subsequently, in 2005, the petitioners appealed the High Court’s ruling.
On 10 May 2011, a full bench of seven judges of the Appellate Division, by majority opinion, declared the 13th Amendment unconstitutional, effectively abolishing the caretaker government system.
In light of this judgement, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed by the National Parliament on 30 June 2011, which officially abolished the caretaker government system and made several other changes.
The gazette notification regarding this amendment was published on 3 July 2011.
