Dhaka, July 18 (bdnews24.com) – The Appellate Division has upheld the High Court order which stayed, for three months, the government decision cancelling the Bengali daily Amar Desh's 'declaration', effectively .
As a result, there is no bar on the newspaper's re-publication, the paper's lawyers said.
A full bench led by chief justice Mohammed Fazlul Karim gave the order on Sunday.
Following the order, Amar Desh's lawyers Rafique Ul Haque, TH Khan, Moudud Ahmed, Abdur Razzaque, Rafiqul Islam Khan told journalists there was no bar on Amar Desh's publication because of the Appellate Division's order. The order has upheld the freedom of the press, the counsels said.
Additional attorney general MK Rahman represented the state.
Following the order, he said, "The Appellate Division has given no directives about resuming publication of the daily. Also, the Press Act's section states that no daily can be published without a publisher. It will not be appropriate to resume publication in their current state."
*The daily's publication was stopped on June 1 by the government because of the absence of a legal publisher. *
On June 10, the High Court had stayed for three months the government decision to cancel the newspaper's declaration. The court also stayed the lower court's rejection of its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman's application to become the publisher.
The court asked the government to explain in four weeks why the cancellation order, issued by Dhaka's deputy commissioner, should not be declared illegal.
The newspaper had started publication on Sept 2004 with Hashmat Ali Hashu, the brother of BNP chief Khaleda Zia's former political secretary Mossaddek Ali Falu, as the publisher.
Former energy advisor to Khaleda, Mahmudur Rahman took over the paper's management in 2008. On Sept 3, 2009, Mahmudur filed an application with the district magistrate to become the publisher.
The government stopped its publication on June 1 claiming that it had no legal publisher as Hashu resigned his post on Oct 11 last year.
Mahmudur was arrested from its office in the early hours of June 2 after Hashu filed a fraud case against him the day before.
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