Stay on Gazipur City Polls: Petitions strange, implications serious

This is the tale of a strange legal battle over something that has no existence for decades.

It is a claim made in a series of writ petitions that forced a ministry to put in a massive effort to prove it false and yet led to the postponement of Gazipur City Corporation polls. Now the Supreme Court needs to sit to dispose of the appeals arising out of the latest one.    

The chairman of Shimulia Union Parishad, ABM Azharul Islam Suruj, has kept filing writ petitions with the High Court since 2015, claiming that six mouzas of Shimulia were incorporated into Gazipur city.

But not a single inch of Shimulia, a union under Savar upazila of Dhaka, was incorporated into Gazipur city when the GCC was formed in 2013, according to government records.

In fact, Shimulia union, established in 1931, lost the six mouzas 40 years ago.

The latest petition filed by Suruj, also a leader of Savar Awami League, resulted in postponement of GCC polls scheduled for May 15 as a HC bench stayed the elections for three months in response to his petition.

The Election Commission, mayoral candidates of both Awami League and BNP filed three separate appeals in last three days against the stay order, and the full bench of the SC may hold hearings on those today. 

The six mouzas -- Dakkhin Baroibari, Domna, Shibrampur, Pashchim Panishail, Dakkhin Panishail and Domnag -- were transferred from Savar to Joydevpur Thana of Gazipur in 1978 when the then government reorganised the administrative units.

In 1996, the six mouzas were incorporated into the ward-1 of Kashimpur union under Gazipur district.

In 2012, Kashimpur union was merged into Gazipur municipality. And in 2013, the government established Gazipur City Corporation comprised of Gazipur and Tongi municipalities, as per the LGRD ministry records.

This means the six mouzas were transferred from Savar of Dhaka district to Gazipur around four decades ago.

But all of a sudden in 2015, Suruj came up with the claim that the six mouzas of Shimulia were incorporated into Gazipur city. He challenged the inclusion by filing a writ petition with the High Court.

In response, the HC directed the LGRD ministry to settle the dispute.

A committee formed by the ministry in October 2017 collected all records on the administrative reorganisation by the government since 1978. In a report, it described the long process of how the six mouzas were merged into Gazipur city.

Last year, in line with the HC directive, the LGRD ministry formed another committee to inquire about the claims raised by Suruj in his writ petition. In its report, the committee said three of the six mouzas -- Domna, Domnag and Dokkhin Baroibari -- are adjacent to the Koltasuti mouza of Shimulia union.

Some people of the three mouzas introduce themselves as inhabitants of Koltasuti mouza to take civic services from Savar upazila. But inhabitants of all the six mouzas pay land taxes to the sub-registrar's office of Gazipur, according to the report.

Based on the two reports, the LGRD ministry on March 4 this year issued a gazette notification that said the inquiry report, all relevant laws and documents testified that the six mouzas were under the administrative district of Gazipur and part of the Gazipur city.

A copy of the notification has been obtained by The Daily Star.

The ministry move did not make Suruj happy. On April 2, he filed a writ petition with an HC bench challenging the March 4 gazette notification.

In his petition, he submitted that there was no justification to merge Savar areas into the Gazipur city.

During the hearing on the petition, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Deputy Attorney General Amatul Karim argued that there was no illegality in merging the six mouzas into the Gazipur city as records showed that they were integral parts of Joydevpur in Gazipur district.

The court rejected his plea.

A week later, he moved another HC bench and filed a writ petition on the same ground. The same day, on April 10, the bench rejected his writ plea saying it could affect the mayoral polls.

On both occasions, the petitioner took back the petitions as if those were not placed.  He, however, did not stop there.

He tried to make his case fresh and strong and added a new point in his petition. This time he also challenged the legality of the schedule of Gazipur city polls announced by the EC on March 31 along with his previous point.

Then on May 6, he filed a new writ petition with the HC bench on April 2. This time he concealed information on the outcomes of his two previous writ petitions. Yet, he won as the HC bench stayed the city polls for three months just 10 days before the voting.

It also ordered the EC and the government to explain why inclusion of the six mouzas in Gazipur city and the election schedule should not be declared illegal. 

Three appeals were filed against the stay order on Gazipur city polls by the two mayoral candidates and the EC in last three days.  

Like lawyers of the mayoral candidates, EC's counsel Obaidur Rahman, who filed the EC's appeal yesterday, said Suruj misled the HC through suppressing the facts that the LGRD ministry has settled the issue regarding the inclusion of the six mouzas in line with the HC's directive.

The SC was supposed to hear yesterday the two appeals filed by the mayoral candidates -- Jahangir Alam of AL and Hasan Uddin Sarkar of BNP -- seeking stay on the HC order that halted the process for holding the polls.

It, however, deferred the hearing for a day after the EC's lawyer informed the apex court that EC would move a petition before it yesterday against the HC order.

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, who was presiding over the four-member SC bench, asked the EC lawyer why the EC is so late about filing the petition as others have already filed the appeal petitions.

Obaidur Rahman replied that he got instruction from the EC on Tuesday for moving the petition against the HC order.

Then, the CJ said all the petitions will be heard today.

During a visit to Gazipur yesterday, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda told reporters that even if the current obstacle goes away, it will be difficult for the EC to hold the polls on May 15.