The High Court yesterday granted ad-interim bail to Barrister Mainul Hosein for six months in 11 cases filed against him over making “defamatory” remarks about journalist Masuda Bhatti.

Following yesterday's HC orders of bail, there is no legal bar for Mainul to get released from jail as no arrest warrant was issued against him in the cases he was not granted bail, his two lawyers Advocate AK Khan Uzzal and Advocate Masud Rana told The Daily Star.

Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Khurshidul Alam said Mainul cannot be released as he did not secure bail in few other cases.

He also said the government will move separate petitions before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the HC orders.

Yesterday, the HC also stayed the trial proceedings of 15 defamation cases filed against Mainul for the next six months and issued separate rules asking the government to explain why the case proceedings against him should not be scrapped.

The bench of Justice Rezaul Haque and Justice Zafar Ahmed passed the orders after hearing 15 petitions filed by Mainul seeking bail and stay in the cases.

Mainul was arrested on October 22 last year in a case filed for defaming journalist Masuda Bhatti on a television talk-show.

As many as 23 cases were filed against him across the country over the incident.

During the hearing, Mainul's principal lawyer Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain told the HC that only the person who is defamed by any comment can file a defamation suit.

Those who are not defamed by a comment cannot file a defamation case as per section 198 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), he said, adding that the complainants of the cases were not defamed by his client's comment.

DAG Khurshidul Alam opposed the bail petitions saying that the accused should not be granted bail as the trial proceedings of the cases was at a very early stage.