Author: Shahiduzzaman
Publication: Newagebd.com
Date: July 9, 2010
URL: http://www.newagebd.com/2010/jul/09/front.html
The High Court on Thursday declared a criminal
offence issuance or execution of any extrajudicial penalty such as beating
and caning in the name of arbitration, mediation or conciliation.
The bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and
Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore ordered the government and the law enforcement
agencies to take punitive measures against the people involved in the issuance
or execution of any such extrajudicial penalty considering it a criminal offence.
Any person who issues or executes such an
extrajudicial penalty must be punished for committing a criminal offence,
ordered the court.
Any person involved in the process of the
issuance or execution of the extrajudicial penalty will be punished as an
abettor to the offence with similar punishment conferred on the offender for
the issuance or execution of the extra-legal penalty.
The court passed the orders in its verdict
in a public interest litigation writ petition filed by rights groups Bangladesh
Legal Aid and Services Trust, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Ain o Salish Kendra,
BRAC and Nijera Kori on August 25, 2009.
In the verdict, the court ordered the government,
law enforcers and local government bodies, especially the municipalities and
union councils, to take immediate measures against issuance or execution of
extrajudicial penalties.
It also ordered them to provide the victims
of such extralegal penalties with security and protection.
The court asked the government and the inspector
general of police to comply with their legal and constitutional duties in
taking effective measures to prevent the imposition and execution of extralegal
penalties.
It also asked the government to frame and
adopt guidelines and orders for all the authorities concerned to report any
information on the occurrence or likely occurrence of any such incident of
extrajudicial penalties by any people or bodies, including union councils
or municipal representatives, in the name of arbitration, mediation and conciliation.
The court also ordered dissemination of the
guidelines and orders on Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar and other
private television and radio channels.
The verdict asked the government, law enforcement
agencies, union councils and municipalities to take immediate measures to
investigate promptly any report of issuance or execution of any extrajudicial
punishment such as beating or caning.
The court also ordered the local government
ministry to inform all union councils and municipalities of the order.
After a preliminary hearing in the writ petition,
the bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique
on August 25, 2009 issued a rule asking the government and the inspector general
of police to explain their failure to act in time and to comply with their
legal and constitutional duties in taking effective measures to prevent the
imposition and execution of extralegal penalties.
Sara Hossain and Mahmud Shafique with Taufiqul
Islam and Salahuddin Dolon moved the petition. Deputy attorney general Razik
al Jalil appeared for the state.
Moving the petition, Sara argued that the
government had failed to prevent the imposition of extrajudicial penalties.
Such penalties are unconstitutional and in
violation of fundamental rights and the right to be free from cruel and degrading
or inhuman treatment or punishment, she said.
She also said people in separate incidents
were executing punishment by beating and caning in the name of mediation,
conciliation and arbitration.
She cited some reports of women and men being
subjected to extrajudicial punishment such as caning in rural arbitration,
often in the presence of or with the participation of members or chairmen
of union councils and municipalities.
The petition described incidents in June 2009
where a woman and a man were caned 101 times at the order of village elders
at Nabiganj in Habiganj in arbitration in the presence of a chairman and a
woman being caned 101 times at Srimangal in Moulvibazar for talking with a
man of another faith.
It also described incidents in June where
a woman in Sirajganj was caned 100 times and fined for filing a complaint
of rape with a court of justice and a woman being caned in public in August
after refusing a relative's sexual advances.
Earlier in 2001, the High Court bench of Justice
Golam Rabbani and Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana delivered a verdict declaring
issuance and execution of any fatwa (religious decree) illegal. Issuance and
execution of any fatwa is punishable under Section 508 of the Penal Code,
the court observed in the verdict.
An appeal was, however, preferred against
the 2001 verdict and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed the
operation of the verdict in the same year. The appeal is still pending with
the Appellate Division.
