Shawdesh Desk:

The Appellate Division on Tuesday upheld a High Court verdict that declared legal administering oath of offices of members of 11th parliament before dissolving the 10th parliament.

A seven members Appellate Division bench chaired by chief justice dismissed a petition filed by main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Taherul Islam, also a Supreme Court lawyer, seeking permission to appeal against the High court verdict.

On February 18, 2019, the High Court in a verdict rejected summarily the writ petition in January 2019.

Writ petitioner lawyer AM Mahbub Uddin Kgokon argued that there were two sets of members of parliament as new MPs took oath of offices during the existence of MPs of previous parliament in their offices.

The HC verdict observed that the writ petition was rejected summarily, observing that  there were ‘misconceived’ that there were two sets of MPs of previous parliament and new parliament on January 3, 2019 when oaths were administered to new MPs without resolving the parliament.

Attorney general AM Amin Uddin on Tuesday argued for upholding the verdict.

He argued that the MPs of the 11th parliament were given oath following the constitutional oath of  new MPs must be administered in three  days since notification of gazette  of the results of national  election.

Amin further submitted that although they were given oath but they did not assume offices until the president called the first sessions of the 11th Parliament.

The dispute over the oath of the MPs of this current parliament was resolved ahead of the national election scheduled in December 2023.