The High Court on Sunday issued a rule asking why legal action should not be taken over the alleged illegal recruitment of 29 junior project consultants at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in 2011.
The court also asked why the authorities’ failure to act on the issue despite government directives should not be declared unlawful.
The rule was issued by a High Court bench comprising Justice Razik-Al-Jalil and Justice Md Anowarul Islam after hearing a writ petition filed by six BTRC officials, court sources said.
Barrister Shihab Uddin Khan appeared for the petitioners.
According to the lawyer, the controversy centres on the recruitment of 29 individuals who were initially hired as junior consultants for a project in 2011 during the tenure of the previous Awami League government.
The individuals were later absorbed into permanent revenue posts at BTRC without competitive examinations or compliance with the commission’s recruitment rules, he said.
The alleged irregularities were flagged in government audits conducted by the Science and ICT Audit Directorate covering fiscal years 2006–07, 2016–17 and 2019–20.
The audits identified several violations in the recruitment process, including breaches of prescribed age limits for the appointees.
Following the findings, the audit directorate wrote to the BTRC chairman on January 13, 2020 seeking an explanation.
However, despite repeated reminders, BTRC allegedly failed to provide a satisfactory response.
The Posts and Telecommunications Division later sent several letters instructing the commission to determine responsibility and take action over the irregular appointments.
The latest directive was issued on October 16, 2025, but no response was submitted, the petitioners’ lawyer told the court.
The issue was also highlighted in a white paper prepared by a task force investigating corruption in the telecommunications sector during the tenure of the interim government.
Citing the findings of the white paper, the ministry again wrote to the BTRC chairman on December 14, 2025 requesting legal action against those involved.
However, the commission allegedly refrained from taking any steps.
Instead, BTRC formed a Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) to consider promoting some of the officials, currently serving as deputy directors, to the post of director.
Several meetings of the committee were reportedly held to expedite the promotion process despite objections from external members who warned that individuals accused of serious financial irregularities should not be promoted.
Six serving BTRC deputy directors — Sunjib Kumar Singha, Kazi Md Ahsanul Habib, Zakir Hossain Khan, S M Afzal Reza, Md Asif Waheed and Md Hashibul Kabir — served a legal notice on February 5 seeking action against the allegedly illegally appointed officials and demanding that they not be promoted.
As no action followed, the six officials later filed a writ petition with the High Court.
After hearing the petition, the court asked the respondents, including the BTRC chairman, the BTRC director general of the administration division, the secretary of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology and the joint director of the audit wing, to explain within two weeks why the failure to act on the ministry’s directives should not be declared unlawful.
