Last Updated on March 7, 2026 8:34 pm by INDIAN AWAAZ
Zakir Hossain, Dhaka
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh is set to hear on Sunday (March 7) an appeal against a High Court verdict that declared several provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, including the abolition of the widely debated caretaker government system, illegal.
The hearing will be held before a bench led by Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury. Earlier, on December 11, 2025, a six-member appellate bench led by then chief justice Dr Syed Refaat Ahmed had adjourned the hearing, saying it would take place after the 13th national parliamentary election. During that hearing, lawyer Dr Sharif Bhuiyan represented the writ petitioner. Barrister Sara Hossain, Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kajal, Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir and Barrister SM Shahriar Kabir participated as intervenors, while then attorney general Md Asaduzzaman appeared for the state. On December 8, senior lawyer Dr Sharif Bhuiyan argued in favour of the application before the High Court. The petition had been filed by the lawyer for Sujan Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar seeking cancellation of the Fifteenth Amendment. At one stage of the hearing, the chief justice observed: “If there are procedural defects in the Fifteenth Amendment, then it is possible to cancel the entire amendment at once.”
On December 17, 2024, the High Court declared several provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment, including the abolition of the caretaker government system, contradictory to the Constitution and illegal. It also reinstated the provision for a referendum in the Constitution. The court said democracy is part of the Constitution’s basic structure and develops through free, fair and impartial elections. However, the will of the people was not reflected in the past three parliamentary elections, which led to the July mass uprising. According to the High Court, the caretaker government system had become part of the Constitution’s basic structure. The verdict was delivered by a bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury.
The court declared Articles 20 and 21 of the Fifteenth Amendment Act, related to the abolition of the caretaker government system, void and reviewed 54 provisions that had been added, revised or substituted through the amendment. However, the High Court said the entire Fifteenth Amendment was not being cancelled and left the remaining provisions to the next national parliament. On the referendum issue, the court observed that Article 142 of the Constitution, added through the Twelfth Amendment, had been repealed under the Fifteenth Amendment Act. As it was inconsistent with the Constitution’s basic structure, the court reinstated it.
The High Court also struck down Articles 7A, 7B and 44(2). Article 7A dealt with offences such as abrogation or suspension of the Constitution, while Article 7B declared the Constitution’s fundamental provisions non-amendable. Article 44(2) imposed restrictions on the enforcement of fundamental rights. The full verdict was later published in 139 pages after being signed by the High Court bench. An appeal petition was filed on November 3 by lawyer Dr Sharif Bhuiyan on behalf of Sujan Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar, the writ petitioner. The Supreme Court granted leave to appeal on November 13. Sunday’s hearing has been included in the cause list of the appeal.