HC questions legality of district council polls

Staff Correspondent: The High Court (HC) has issued a rule upon the authorities concerned to explain as to why the provisions of district council law that allowed an electoral body to cast vote in the election should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.

The HC bench of Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif came up with the rule following a writ petition.

Supreme Court lawyer Rumi Farhana filed the writ petition.

She submitted the petition on December 14 challenging the legality of the Sections 4 (2) and 17 of the Zila Parisahd Act, Section 5 of Zila Parishad Amendment Act, and the election schedule.

She said in the petition, the sections are contrary to the relevant provisions of the constitution as the charter does not allow any indirect voting.

The petitioner claimed that the voter list is faulty as newly-elected representatives were not included in the voter list.

Cabinet secretary, law secretary, local government secretary and chief election commissioner have been made the respondents to the rule.

risingbd/Dhaka/Dec 15, 2016/Mehedi/Amirul