HC scraps quota system for listing freedom fighters

The High Court on Thursday scrapped a Jatiya Muktijoddha Council provision keeping 10 per cent quota for inclusion of real freedom fighters in the official gazette.

A High Court bench comprising Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam passed the order after holding hearing on separate writ petitions filed in this regard.

The council on April 18, 2019, issued a circular saying for inclusion of freedom fighters’ in the official gazette cannot surpass 10 per cent of the existing number of gazetted freedom fighters under each upazilla.

“The writ petitioners were enlisted on the ‘Ka’ list of freedom fighters by the upazilla verification committee in 2017. But because of this 10 per cent quota system, many of them were left out of the gazette, forcing them to challenge the circular with the High Court,” Advocate Toufik Inam Tipu, who moved the petitions before the court, told journalists.

The lawyer said none can regulate the number of real freedom fighters through any act. It is also unconstitutional, he said.

“The number of real freedom fighters can be more or less than 10 per cent of those who have already been gazetted. You cannot leave any real freedom fighter out of gazette and cannot add a single fake freedom fighter in that,” he added.