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Published : 23 Aug 2024, 11:24 AM
The High Court has revoked all previous directives regarding the ban on the broadcasting and publication of BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman's statements in the media.
The bench of Justice Md Khasruzzaman and Justice Md Khairul Alam's bench dismissed a rule on the matter on Thursday.
As a result, nothing is preventing the dissemination of Tarique’s statements, said BNP Legal Affairs Secretary Advocate Kaisar Kamal.
Nasreen Siddiqui, the lawyer who filed the petition, appeared in court and said she would not pursue the rule, allowing for it to be dismissed.
Afterwards, Kaisar told the media: "The honourable court said that the ban on the broadcasting of Mr. Tarique Rahman’s speech is no longer effective from today. It recalled and vacated the injunctions which had been issued and disposed of the writ petition itself.”
In 2015, Tarique was criticised for various controversial comments on Bangladeshi history and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In that context, the High Court banned the dissemination and publication of his statements in all forms of media while he was a fugitive in the eyes of the law.
On Jan 7, 2015, Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman held the preliminary hearing of lawyer Nasreen's petition and issued a rule as well as an interim order.
Last year, the ban made headlines again when a video speech by Tarique was aired at a BNP rally in Naya Paltan. The petitioner then took the initiative to challenge the High Court's ruling.
The High Court had issued a rule seeking to know why an order should not be issued to ban the publication of Tarique's speech when the petition was filed. The rule asked the information and home secretary to implement the interim order until the rule was settled.
Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Roy told bdnews24.com that the ban would continue until the ruling is settled.
The information secretary, home secretary, law secretary, inspector general of police, director general of BTV, chairman of BTRC, the chief news editor of Ekushey TV, the editor of Kaler Kantha and Tarique were asked to respond to the ruling within four weeks.
At the same time, the High Court directed the foreign secretary to inform it about the status of Tarique's stay abroad. The IGP was asked to report on the validity of the BNP leader’s passport and instructed it to be submitted within 30 days.
But, because the notice could not be sent to Tarique, a hearing on the rule was not held in nine and a half years.
The notice sent to Tarique had a mistake in its address – ‘room’ was written in the place of ‘road’. This meant that he did not receive the notice.
The court then asked for a correction to the address and for the notice to be re-sent. It also noted that it could have been sent by fax or email.
In August 2023, the writ petitioner filed a supplementary application. Given this, in an order on Aug 28 of that year, the High Court directed the BTRC to take immediate effective steps to remove the speech, statements, audio and video of Tarique from social media platforms Facebook and YouTube.
The writ petitioner informed the court that she would not pursue it further, leading to a special High Court bench scrapping the rule on Thursday afternoon.
