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Published : 20 Feb 2025, 10:59 AM
Following the scrapping of the oral portion results for the 27th Bangladesh Civil Service examinations, the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division has ordered 1,137 candidates previously dropped from the recruitment process to be appointed to government jobs.
A five-member bench led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed made the decision on Thursday after hearing three appeals on the matter.
As a result, the job seekers – who have been fighting for appointments for a decade and a half – will finally get their appointments.
Advocate Salahuddin Dolon stood for the petitioners while Additional Attorney General Aneek R Haque represented the state alongside advocate Khalequzzaman Bhuiyan on behalf of the Public Service Commission, or PSC.
The petitioners’ lawyer Salahuddin said, as a result of the verdict, about 1,200 candidates who want to be recruited will have to be appointed within 90 days.
The Appellate Division upheld the High Court verdict, alongside its three observations.
The three observations stated that those who had already been revoked would be appointed within 90 days, their seniority would be in accordance with the law, and those who had already joined the service through the 27th BCS exams should not have any difficulty and the legal matters would be settled by the executive branch.
Salahuddin said, “In this judgment, the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division had previously ‘set aside’ the High Court verdict without any ‘leave grant’. The appeal that we had made earlier–the 'civil petition for leave to appeal’– which was set aside without granting any leave, that verdict has been overturned."
Another lawyer of the candidates, Ruhul Quddus Kazal, said: "Today's verdict has overturned the Appellate Division’s earlier verdict without 'leave granting'. That means the Appellate Division today annulled the previous Appellate Division's verdict. The High Court verdict that ordered the 1,137 candidates to be given jobs has been revived.”
“Or, simply, the verdict given by the High Court Division will be upheld for the 1,137 candidates who passed the 27th BCS."
As many as 3,567 candidates passed the first oral examination of the 27th BCS. In 2007, the caretaker government annulled the results of the first oral test over charges of irregularities and corruption and arranged the second viva voce.
The successful candidates filed a writ petition challenging the validity of the cancellation of the first oral test’s results. On Jul 3, 2008, the High Court declared the scrapping of the first 27th BCS oral test results valid.
The petitioners later filed a leave to appeal with the Appellate Division against the order.
Another High Court bench declared the second oral test illegal on Nov 11, 2009. The government filed a leave to appeal against this.
On Jul 11, 2010, a six-strong Appellate Division bench, led by then chief justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, upheld the High Court's verdict declaring the cancellation of the first oral test valid.
At the same time, the government's leave-to-appeal against the High Court verdict declaring the second oral test illegal was settled with some observations.
On Wednesday, the appellate bench set Thursday as the date for the verdict.
