A Bench of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on 28 August issued a rule against the government asking the authorities to explain why the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008, under which the Truth and Accountability Commission was formed on 30 July 2008, should not be declared illegal and void. A rights group challenged the legality of the Truth and Accountability Commission at the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on 25 August, local media reports today.
The Dhaka based English daily The New Age reported that the Attorney General Mr. Salah Uddin Ahmed opposed the petition saying that the Truth and Accountability Commission was not an alternative to courts during the hearing of the Public Interest Litigation writ petition. The High Court Bench comprising of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hossein Ahmed have heard the arguments on the petition for three days before passing its order yesterday. The Court asked the President’s secretary, cabinet secretary, law ministry secretary, home ministry secretary, truth commission’s chairman and the anti-corruption commission chairman to respond to its rule within two weeks.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on 27 August published a statement underlining the points made in the petition, which challenged the legality of the Truth and Accountability Commission (For further details, please see: AHRC-STM-222-2008). The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), the sister organization of the AHRC, has already raised the same issue in its Written Submission to the 9th Session of the Human Rights Council of the UN recently on 21 August (Please see: ALRC-CWS-09-01-2008, for further details).
