The court demanded an explanation from the government on legal grounds of keeping Islam as the country's state religion, amid demands to restore the secular character of 1972 Constitution.
The Bangladesh high court today demanded an explanation from the government on legal grounds of keeping Islam as the country's state religion, amid demands to restore the secular character of 1972 Constitution.
"The high court today issued rule on the authorities concerned asking to show cause in eight days why declaration of Islam as the state religion of the Republic should not be declared illegal and ultra vires to the Constitution," a court official said.
The two-member high court bench comprising judges Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Gobinda Chandra Tagore also appointed 11 senior lawyers and jurists as "amici curiae" or 'friends of the court' to place their opinions on the issue.
The order came on a long-pending writ petition by 15 distinguished Bangladeshis filed in 1988 just after the then government of military ruler turned politician president HM Ershad incorporated a provision in the constitution declaring Islam as the state religion under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.
The court fixed June 16 for holding hearing on the issue while parliamentary speaker Abdul Hamid advocate and the law secretary were made respondents of the rule.
The writ was moved 23 years after the filing of the petition as one of the petitioners' journalist Faiz Ahmed took initiatives to get it heard by submitting a supplementary affidavit.
The development came five days after the main grouping of religious minority communities warned of tough actions against reported government plans to keep Islam as the state religion as initiatives were underway to amend the Constitution.
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