Supreme Court stays HC verdict over govt officials' arrest without prior nod

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has stayed the High Court judgement that scrapped the provision of prior permission to arrest government officials for criminal offence. The HC verdict was stayed till October 23.

The Appellate Division also asked the government to file a leave to appeal petition against the HC verdict by October 23.

An SC bench led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order on Thursday following a petition filed by the government seeking stay on the HC verdict.

On August 25, scrapped a provision of the Public Service Act, 2018, describing it as unconstitutional.

"The Constitution is the country’s main law and as per the Constitution, everyone is equal in the eyes of the law," the court observed.

On November 14, 2018, a gazette was issued on Public Service Act, 2018. It was published on September 26, 2019, and came into effect on October 1, 2019.

According to Section 41(1) of the Act, prior permission is needed from the government or higher authorities to arrest a government officer for a criminal offence.

On October 14, 2019, a writ petition was filed challenging the legality of Section 41 (1) of the Act.

Advocates Sarwar Ahad Chowdhury, Ekhlas Uddin Bhuiyan and Mahbubul Islam filed the writ petition on behalf of the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, an NGO.

On October 21, 2019, the High Court issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why Section 41 (1) of the Public Service Act should not be declared 'illegal and contradictory to articles 26(1) and (2), 27 and 31 of the Constitution'.