B Mirror Desk : BNP leader Ishraq Hossain filed a writ suit asking the High Court to order that he not be sworn in as mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), but the court dismissed it.

The ruling was issued on Thursday, May 22, by a High Court panel consisting of Justices Md. Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Debashish Roy Chowdhury. The lawyers stated that Ishraq Hossain is not prohibited from taking the oath as a result of the order.

On Thursday at 11:45 am, a bench consisting of Justice Md. Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury of the High Court commenced the reading of the verdict, subsequently issuing the order. Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Barrister Kaiser Kamal represented Ishraq in court. Senior lawyer Mohammad Hossain presided over the writ petition, with assistance from Barrister AKM Ehsanur Rahman, Advocate Gazi Touhidul Islam, Md. Maqsud Ullah, and other legal representatives for Ishraq Hossain.

The state was represented by Deputy Attorney General Barrister Md. Mahfuzur Rahman Milon and Deputy Attorney General Khan Ziaur Rahman. The hearing for the writ petition initially took place on Tuesday at 1 pm, concluding around 2 pm before being adjourned. It resumed from 4:10 pm to approximately 5:15 pm, with the hearing and order originally scheduled for 12:30 pm on Wednesday, which was later postponed to Thursday.

The Dhaka South City Corporation elections occurred on February 1, 2020, resulting in Awami League candidate Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh being elected as mayor. The Election Commission released the official gazette of the election results on February 2, and Taposh has been fulfilling his responsibilities since that time. In this election, Taposh garnered 425,000 votes for the mayoral position, while his nearest competitor, BNP candidate Ishraq, received 236,000 votes. On March 3, 2020, Ishraq filed a case to contest the election results, citing allegations of irregularities and corruption.

Following the collapse of the Awami League government in August of the previous year due to a student and public uprising, all city corporation mayors across the nation were dismissed. Subsequently, Additional Secretary Shahjahan Mia took on the role of administrator for Dhaka South City. On March 27, Dhaka’s First Joint District Judge and Election Tribunal Judge Md. Nurul Islam ruled in favor of BNP leader Ishraq Hossain, invalidating the results of the 2020 Dhaka South City Corporation election that had declared Fazle Noor Taposh as the winner. The court mandated that the gazette be published within 10 days, and following the ruling, the Election Commission issued the gazette on April 27.