HC questions legality of govt officials’ greetings to ministers thru’ ad

The High Court today questioned the legality of the government officials’ extending greetings to ministers through publishing advertisements in the newspaper.

It issued a rule asking the authorities concerned of the government to explain in two weeks why publishing such advertisements should not be declared illegal.

The HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil came up with the rule following a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.

The organisation submitted the petition to the HC on Sunday challenging the legality of the government officials’ extending greetings to ministers through publishing advertisements in the newspapers.

In the petition, the petitioner annexed advertisements published in Bangla dailies Kaler Kantha, Bangladesh Pratidin and Jugantor on January 9 this year where the director generals of the Directorates of Health Services and Family Planning expressed greetings to Health Minister Zahid Malik and State Minister for Health Md Murad Hasan for their appointment as minister and state minister respectively.

During hearing on the petition today, petitioner’s lawyer Advocate Manzill Murshid told the HC that the government officials’ duty is to save the public money as per the constitution.         

The director generals of the Directorates of Health Services and Family Planning expressed greetings to Health Minister Zahid Malik and State Minister for Health Md Murad Hasan for their appointment as minister and state minister respectively through publishing advertisements in the newspapers at the cost of public money, which is illegal, the lawyer said.

The lawyer also argued that the government officials could extend their greetings to the ministers by meeting them personally at their offices.