The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has granted permission to file an appeal against its earlier ruling that declared the caretaker government system unconstitutional. The court has fixed October 21 for the hearing of the appeal.
The decision came on Wednesday (August 27) from a seven-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Dr. Syed Refaat Ahmed.
Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kajol and Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir argued on behalf of the petitioners, while Attorney General Mohammad Asaduzzaman represented the state.
During the proceedings, Chief Justice Dr. Ahmed remarked that the Appellate Division did not wish to bring back the caretaker system merely as a temporary fix but rather sought a sustainable solution regarding the election-time government to ensure that democracy in Bangladesh was not repeatedly disrupted. He also raised the question of when the caretaker system would become effective if reinstated.
The Attorney General, in his submission, stated that over the past decade and a half, the people of the country had suffered repression instead of good governance, facing incidents of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and political persecution. He argued that institutions meant to protect citizens had been systematically weakened, resulting in a lack of justice. According to him, such circumstances had led to mass uprisings, including the downfall of governments, stressing that public power should not be disregarded.
Following the hearing, the Appellate Division granted leave to appeal and set October 21 for a fresh hearing.
Earlier, in 2011, the Appellate Division had declared the 13th Amendment to the Constitution—through which the caretaker government system was introduced—unconstitutional and void. However, the court had allowed the 10th and 11th parliamentary elections to be held under caretaker arrangements as a transitional measure. The full verdict was delivered by a bench led by then-Chief Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque.
The issue has recently resurfaced after several review petitions were filed against the 2011 judgment. Civil society representatives including Badiul Alam Majumdar of SHUJAN, along with several others, filed petitions on August 25. Subsequently, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir filed another review petition on October 16, followed by one from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on October 23.
The caretaker government system, introduced through the 13th Amendment in 1996, had long been a subject of political debate. While some constitutional experts and political leaders defended it as a safeguard for free and fair elections, others opposed it as an unconstitutional mechanism and a deviation from democratic norms.
With the Appellate Division now reopening the issue for hearing, the debate over election-time governance in Bangladesh has once again moved to the center of national political discourse
