HC stays order suspending Sylhet mayor

The High Court yesterday stayed for three months the government's suspension of pro-BNP Sylhet Mayor Ariful Huq Chowdhury.

Ariful along with pro-BNP Rajshahi Mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul were suspended on Sunday, a couple of hours after they regained their posts through protracted legal battles ending a two-year suspension.

The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives (LGRD) served the suspension order on Ariful, citing that a Sunamganj court on March 22 accepted a charge sheet against him in a case over a grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Sunamganj in 2004.

The HC also issued a rule, in response to a writ petition filed by Ariful, asking the government to explain in a week why the suspension of Ariful as Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) mayor should not declared illegal.

Rajshahi Mayor Bulbul said he also would challenge his suspension in the HC.

The HC asked the government to explain why the provisions of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009, under which Ariful was suspended, should not be declared unconstitutional, Ariful's lawyer Muhammed Abdul Halim Kafi told The Daily Star.

Now there is no legal bar preventing Ariful from discharging his duties as SCC mayor, he said.

LGRD secretary and its deputy secretary concerned, divisional commissioner and deputy commissioner of Sylhet, chief executive officer of the SCC and commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police have been made respondents to the rule, the lawyer added. 

The HC bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan also fixed April 9 for holding a hearing on the rule.

The bench came up with the order and rule after hearing Ariful's writ petition challenging the legality of the LGRD ministry decision to suspend him and the provisions of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009, that allows the ministry to suspend a mayor.

Asked, Ariful said his suspension was "a drama that shouldn't have taken place in a democracy. It undermines people's votes."     

Citing the petition, lawyer Halim said the LGRD ministry's decision to suspend Ariful was illegal and had malafide intentions as the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has month upheld a High Court order that stayed his suspension on a similar ground.

The apex court had earlier justified another HC verdict that had declared the suspension of Rajshahi Mayor Mosaddek illegal. 

Halim said the provisions of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009 that allows the LGRD ministry to suspend a mayor was illegal and unconstitutional, as it allows punishment of a person before the end of trial proceedings, he said.

RAJSHAHI MAYOR TO CHALLENGE HIS SUSPENSION

Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul's lawyer Aminul Haque Helal said his client would file a writ petition with the HC today challenging the legality of his suspension.

“I am an elected mayor. Both the Supreme Court and the High Court gave orders in my favour. Even if I am accused in criminal cases, no one can dismiss me until I am proven guilty," Bulbul told The Daily Star.

The LGRD ministry on Sunday issued a suspension order on Bulbul, saying a Rajshahi court accepted charge sheets against him in two cases filed under the Explosive Substances Act. The charge sheets were accepted around two years ago.

"It's illegal. They cannot dismiss me on the same ground again,” he said.

Following the Apex Court verdicts in their favour last month, Ariful and Bulbul went to their respective offices Sunday morning.

Minutes after he entered his office, Bulbul was informed that he had been suspended again.