People jailed over 2 years ineligible for election: HC

The High Court has said in a recently published full text of a judgement that a person sentenced to more than two years will be considered being constitutionally incompetent for taking part in election.

This judgement was made by a division bench of the High Court consisting of Justice M Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice KM Hafizul Alam, rejecting the petition brought by five BNP leaders, who were convicted in a corruption case earlier.

The full 44-page verdict delivered on November 27, 2018, was published on the website of the Supreme Court on Sunday after the two judges signed it.
   
According to the provisions of Article 66(2) (d), "If any person is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than 2(two) years, he will not be eligible or allowed to participate in any election to Parliament unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release," the judgement added.

In the judgment, the court said that, "In appeal when a person is enlarged on bail then execution of sentence is suspended but the status of a person as "convict" is not changed, unless the said conviction is set aside by the competent Court of law."

Therefore, the judgement delivered the observation that a pending appeal does not mean that the convicted person is innocent. There is no opportunity to participate in the elections until the penalty is cancelled or the conviction is quashed by a ‍‍`competent court of law‍‍`.

And there is no scope for suspension of the sentence of the appellants, to facilitate their participation in the parliamentary elections.

"In this case, whatever is contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Constitution shall prevail here," the judgement said.

The judgment further directed the parties to take necessary steps for expeditious disposal of the criminal appeal.

The petitioners are: BNP leaders -Wadud Bhuiyan, M Abdul Wahab, M Moshiur Rahman, A Z M Zahid Hossain and Aman Ullah Aman.