The High Court today summarily rejected the writ petition that sought a stay on the Election Commission's decision to declare BNP-nominated candidate Ishraque Hossain as the mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation.
The bench of Justice Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Justice Debasish Roy Chowdhury passed the order after concluding the hearing on the petition.
Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, who placed the arguments before the court in favour of Ishraque, told reporters that there is no legal bar for the authorities concerned to administer oath to Ishraque as the mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) following the HC order.
"If they don't administer him the oath, a contempt of court proceedings will be initiated against them," he said.
Meanwhile, writ petitioner's lawyer Mohammad Hossain Lipu told journalists , "Our client (writ petitioner) has instructed us to move a petition before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking stay on the High Court order. We will move the petition this afternoon or next Sunday."
On March 27 this year, Dhaka's First Joint District Judge and Election Tribunal Judge Md Nurul Islam overturned the 2020 DSCC's election result, declaring Ishraque as the winner and ordered the EC to issue a gazette within ten days.
The EC on April 27 issued a gazette notification declaring Ishraque as the mayor of DSCC.
One Mamunur Rashid, a resident of DSCC, on May 14 submitted the writ petition to the HC challenging the legality of the tribunal's verdict and EC's gazette notification.
He said in the petition that the tribunal delivered the verdict hastily and without following proper legal procedures.
The EC did not wait for the law ministry's opinion before issuing the gazette notification declaring Ishraque as DSCC's mayor, he said in the petition, adding that since the mayoral term had already expired and the position was vacated through an ordinance, the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to declare Ishraque elected as DSCC mayor.
Meanwhile, supporters of Ishraque have launched protest programmes, demanding that he be sworn in as DSCC mayor as soon as possible.