The High Court (HC) issued a rule on Tuesday, asking the government to explain in four weeks as to why the sections concerned of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Rules that curtailed the Bangladesh Police's authority to directly record corruption cases should not be declared unconstitutional.
The HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman passed the order after hearing a writ petition, filed challenging the ACC Rules.
Advocate Abdul Qaiyum Khan and Advocate Mamtaz Perveen appeared in the court on behalf of the writ petition, while Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan stood for the state.
Law secretary, home secretary, parliament secretariat secretary, ACC chairman, inspector general of police (IGP), and ACC secretary have been made respondents in the rule.
Advocate Perveen said, "We prayed to the court to issue a rule upon the respondents to explain as to why the sections 1(2)(GhaGha)(Chha), 4, 9, (Ka), 10 and form 2(Kha) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Rules 2007 (amended 2019) should not be declared illegal."
After hearing, the court issued a rule over sections 1(2)(GhaGha)(Chha) and 4, and form 2(Kha) of the ACC Rules, added the lawyer.
The ACC issued a new gazette on June 20 after amending the Anti-Corruption Commission Rules 2007, where the new provisions were included.
It has been said in the amended rules that a citizen can lodge a graft allegation with a police station, but police cannot record the allegation as a case.
The police station will accept the allegation as a general diary (GD), and will send the GD to the ACC. Then the ACC will record the GD as a case, and conduct enquiry into the case, Advocate Subir Nandi said.
The people's right to lodge corruption case with the police station has been violated due to these sections of the new ACC Rules, which are against sections 35 and 65(1) of the Constitution and section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), he added.
Two Supreme Court lawyers - Advocate Subir Nandi Das and Barrister Noshin Nowal - jointly submitted the petition on November 13, praying to the HC to scrap the sections concerned of the ACC Rules.
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