The Appellate Division will deliver its order on BNP candidate Aslam Chowdhury’s petition seeking publication of his election result and permission to take oath after winning the Chattogram-4 constituency in the 13th parliamentary election on Thursday.
The bench led by the Chief Justice fixed the date on Wednesday.
Following a hearing at the Election Commission, Aslam Chowdhury’s nomination was declared valid on 18 January despite allegations of loan default. A bank authority later challenged the EC decision through a writ petition, but the High Court rejected it.
The bank authority subsequently filed an appeal before the Appellate Division. Jamaat candidate Md Anwar Siddique also filed a leave-to-appeal petition against the High Court order.
On 3 February, the Appellate Division granted leave to appeal against the order that upheld Aslam Chowdhury’s candidacy.
As a result, he was allowed to contest the election. However, the court ordered that the election result for the constituency would remain suspended until disposal of the appeal and that the result could not be published.
In the 12 February election, Aslam Chowdhury unofficially emerged victorious. But the result remained unpublished following the court order.
In this situation, Aslam Chowdhury filed a petition seeking publication of the result and permission to take oath.
Lawyer for the BNP candidate Shishir Monir said the court held a partial hearing on Wednesday and would pass its order on Thursday. He said Aslam Chowdhury sought publication of the result and permission to take oath through the petition.
“We argued during the hearing that if such an application is accepted without disposal of the main appeal, then the necessity of the main appeal itself would no longer remain,” he said.
