7th Amendment
SC hearing on HC verdict concludes
The Supreme Court yesterday concluded hearing on the appeal filed against a High Court verdict declaring illegal the seventh amendment to the constitution that legitimised the military rule of HM Ershad.
The court will deliver its verdict any day.
A six-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque yesterday kept the matter waiting for judgment after concluding the hearing on the appeal against the August 26 HC verdict.
Following petition filed by one Siddique Ahmed of Chittagong seeking bail in a case filed during the military regime of HM Ershad, the HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain delivered the watershed judgment.
In the judgment, the HC also issued a certificate so that an appeal can be filed automatically with the apex court against the HC verdict.
Siddique Ahmed filed the writ petition with the HC in January last year, challenging the legality of the seventh amendment that had ratified the proclamation of martial law and other regulations, orders, and instructions by Ershad between March 24, 1982 and November 10, 1986.
The petitioner also contested his murder conviction in 1987 by a martial law court, and sought an order for retrial. He was sentenced to life in prison in the case.
He also prayed to the HC for retrial of the case against him and for his acquittal from the charge.
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