SC stays HC halt on transfer of case against army officer to military court

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed for four weeks a High Court order that halted a move to transfer a case against an army officer over the torture of his wife to a military court from a special tribunal.

Following a writ petition, the HC on August 12 also stayed the proceedings of the case filed against Maj Nazir Uddin for brutalising his wife Nusrat Jahan Tushti, also a student of Dhaka University, for dowry on March 30.

The case was filed with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal of Tangail on April 2.

Yesterday, the apex court stayed the HC order and  asked the government to submit a leave to appeal petition before it against the HC order in four weeks.

The four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order after hearing a government petition seeking a stay on the HC order. 

The petitioner's lawyer, Aneek R Haque, told The Daily Star that the tribunal of Tangail had to hand over the case to the military court following the SC order.

Area Commander (Logistics) of Army Headquarters Maj Gen Mizanur Rahman Khan on May 11 sent a letter to the judge of the Tangail court, stating that the case against Nazir should be tried in a military court, since the accused was an army officer.

In the letter, Mizanur also asked the Tangail court to transfer the case to the court-martial for its trial, he earlier said.