A two-member bench comprising Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Govinda Chandra Thakur issued the rule and also set June 16 for hearing the petition.
The Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad and Law Secretary were made the respondents.
Islam was declared as the State religion in the fourth Jatiya Sangsad during the Military ruler Lt. General (retd) Ershad regime by the eighth amendment to the Constitution.
The amendment was made by inserting sub-article 2A in the Constitution, which was adopted in the Jatiya Sangsad on June 9, 1988.
In August 1988, 15 eminent citizens including Begum Sufia Kamal, Justice Debesh Chandra Bhattachariya, Justice K M Sobhan, Barrister Istiaq Ahmed, Singer Kalim Sharafi, former Chief Justice Kamal Uddin Hossain, Professor Khan Sarwar Morshed, Professor Kabir Chowdhury, Professor Mosharraf Hossain, Sector Commander Major General (retd) C R Dutta, and Journalist and Writer Faiz Ahmed, jointly filed the writ petition challenging the legality of the amendment, which declared “Islam” the State religion, but it was not moved at that time.
