Scrutinise Mirza Abbas's nomination in 24 hours, orders Supreme Court

The Appellate Division has upheld the High Court order to the Election Commission to send Mirza Abbas's nomination to the returning officer and finish scrutinising it within 24 hours.

The High Court issued a directive to the Election Commission to resolve an appeal by any party against the acceptance or rejection of a nomination by 24 hours.

An appellate bench of six led by the chief justice issued the order on Thursday following the hearing of a petition filed by the Dhaka deputy commissioner and returning officer seeking a stay on the High Court order.

Advocate Zainul Abedin and Barrister AKM  Ehsanur Rahman  represented Mirza Abbas, a BNP candidate for the  Dhaka-9 seat. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the returning officer.

"The Appellate Division has modified the High Court order and issued it. It ordered that Mirza Abbas's nomination be scrutinised within 24 hours," Zainul Abedin told the journalists.

"The court has issued a directive to the returning officer to announce if Abbas's nomination was accepted or rejected within 24 hours. If any party appeals against the returning officer's decision, that should also be settled within, which means Mirza Abbas will be eligible to appeal if his nomination is rejected."

Abbas, a BNP standing committee member failed to submit his nomination even after 'several attempts' on Nov 28, Advocate Ehsanur Rahman told the journalists following the High Court order.

"The authority did not accept his nomination form submission with the excuse of a missed deadline. Later, the nomination was submitted directly to the chief election commissioner on Dec 1. But the EC did not forward it to the concerned returning officer and that made us to file the writ petition."

Following Abbas's petition, the High Court had issued an order on Tuesday to forward the BNP leader's nomination form to the returning officer and complete its scrutiny by 24 hours.

The High Court also issued a rule asking why the issue of intentionally not accepting Mirza Abbas's nomination form and failure to forward it to the returning officer would not be considered illegal.