ACC act challenged
The High Court yesterday issued a rule on the legality of Anti-Corruption Commission law that empowered the commission to charge people with amassing wealth beyond known sources and concealing information about it.
In response to separate writ petitions, the bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore asked the government and ACC to explain within three weeks why sections 26(2) and 27(1) of the ACC act should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.
The bench also asked the government and ACC to explain why the commission's filing and proceedings of cases against petitioners should not be declared illegal.
Rabiul Islam, a Dhaka City Corporation official, and his wife Afroza Islam, against whom the ACC filed separate cases under the two sections in April and May this year, have recently filed the writ petitions challenging the legality of the sections.
They said in the petitions that under a provision in the income tax law, an accused can get acquitted on the charge of dodging income tax by paying 10 percent of the income to the authorities. But the ACC filed cases against the couple without giving them any opportunity to get remedy under the income tax provision.
Kazi Aktar Hamid appeared for the petitioners.
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