DHAKA / AMN
Bangladesh’s high court Monday rejected a petition by secular activists to scrap Islam as the state religion in the wake of nationwide protests by Muslims groups.
The High Court rejected a petition that challenged the constitutional validity of retaining Islam as the state religion.
Led by Justice Naima Haider, a larger HC bench comprising Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal, passed the order.
In its order, the HC said the petitioners do not have the right to file the writ petition.
Lawyers Jaglul Haider Afric and Subrata Chowdhury appeared for the prosecution while Additional Attorney General Murad Reza represented the state.
Fifteen noted personalities, in 1988, filed a petition challenging the state religion provision.
The petitioners included- former Chief Justice Kamal Uddin Hossain, Poet Sufia Kamal, Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury, Justice Debesh Chandra Bhattacharjee, Prof Khan Sarwar Murshid, Professor Kabir Chowdhury, Prof Mosharraf Hossain, Major General (retd) CR Dutta, Writer Badaruddin Umar, Justice KM Sobhan, Syed Istiaq Ahmed, Kalim Sharafi, Journalist Faiz Ahmed, Borhan Uddin Khan Jahangir and Prof Anisuzzaman.
Many of them have already died. After 23 years of writ petition, the HC in 2011 issued a supplementary rule asking the government to explain why the part of the 15th amendment to the constitution that gave “Islam” the status of state religion should not be declared illegal.
On February 29, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha formed a new three-member bench to hear the 1988 petition following a prayer submitted on behalf of the petitioners.