NCT deal with UAE firm: SC defers hearing on petition tomorrow

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today deferred until tomorrow the hearing on a leave-to-appeal petition challenging the High Court verdict that upheld the government’s move to lease out the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) at Chattogram Port to UAE firm DP World.

A bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Md Rezaul Haque passed the deferment order after the attorney general's office sought an adjournment, petitioner's counsel Md Anwar Hossen told The Daily Star.

Bangladesh Jubo Arthanitibid Forum, a philanthropic organisation, recently submitted the leave to appeal petition to the Appellate Division challenging the HC verdict.

In the petition, the organisation sought an order to maintain the status quo regarding the process of awarding the contract for the NCT to DP World.

Citing the petition, Barrister Anwar earlier said that the intended execution of the impugned contract concerning the NCT, barely a week prior to the said election, amounts to an act of manifest executive high-handedness, arbitrariness, and malafide exercise of power on the part of the respondents (government).

If the court is not pleased to pass an order of status quo in respect of awarding the contract for the NCT in view of the changed and compelling circumstances, the petitioners will suffer irreparable loss and injury, and the rights and interests of the public at large will be materially prejudiced, he added.

On January 29, Justice Md Rezaul Haque, a chamber judge of the Appellate Division, passed “no order” on a petition filed by the Bangladesh Jubo Arthanitibid Forum against the HC verdict, seeking an order to maintain the status quo in the entire process related to the award of the contract for the NCT.

Earlier the same day, the HC rejected a writ petition filed by the forum that challenged the legality of the government's move to award a contract to DP World for container handling at NCT.