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Published : 15 Jul 2025, 06:02 PM
Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of civil society platform Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (SHUJAN), or Citizens for Good Governance, has announced plans to appeal the High Court verdict that struck down parts of the 15th constitutional amendment and paved the way for reinstating the caretaker government system.
While he welcomed the overall judgment, he cited certain “inconsistencies” in the ruling as grounds for appeal.
He made the announcement on Tuesday at a media briefing held at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.
Majumdar, a member of the National Consensus Commission, said: “We will appeal this time. To put it briefly, we are satisfied with the verdict, but still, we will appeal.”
He, however, did not provide details about which parts of the verdict they object to or the grounds for the appeal.
Holding up a book he authored, he repeatedly said that “everything” was explained in it.
Under the previous Awami League government, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 2011, bringing changes, additions, and replacements to 54 articles. The amendment effectively abolished the provision for a non-partisan caretaker government system to oversee general elections.
After the fall of the Awami League government on Aug 5, 2024, calls to reinstate the caretaker government system grew louder.
On Aug 18, 2024, Badiul and four others filed a writ petition challenging the legality of the 15th Amendment. Later, several individuals and political parties, including the BNP, Gono Forum, and Jamaat-e-Islami, became parties to the case.
Later, on Dec 17, 2024, the High Court struck down parts of the 15th Amendment.
Sections 20 and 21 of the 15th Amendment Act, which abolished the caretaker government system, were declared unconstitutional and void, opening the door for the return of the system.
At the start of the briefing, Badiul said: “As you all know, Sheikh Hasina turned into an autocrat. Even though she came to power through elections, over time, she became authoritarian. To make her grip on power permanent, she passed the 15th Amendment, using the excuse of a brief and divided Supreme Court verdict. Even though that split verdict stted that two more elections could be held under a caretaker government.”
“There wasn’t much discussion in parliament. It was passed unilaterally, and even after passing, there wasn’t much debate about it.”
Speaking about his own work, he held up a book he wrote and said: “It was I who first raised this issue in this book. The amendment lacked legitimacy -- not even legal validity.”
“On the 28th of the October, 2013, I wrote a piece titled ‘Whose Constitution Is This?’ where I said that the will of the people was not reflected. Not just that piece, I’ve written extensively in newspapers and spoken on television.”
Referring to his book titled "Tattabadhayak Sarkar Batiler Oporajneeti" (The Dirty Politics of Abolishing the Caretaker Government), he continued: “This book brought me criticism in 2023. Despite the accusations, everything’s fine now. Then we decided to file a writ petition. Four others joined me and we submitted the petition last August."
“The desire to restore the caretaker system was our motivation behind the writ petition. We filed it arguing that the 15th Amendment was illegal.
“The lawyers handled it exceptionally well, which led the court to declare the amendment unconstitutional. And they did all this on a voluntary basis without charging any fees.”
