ACC can sack staff without citing reasons: HC

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday granted an appeal filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission against the scrapping of Rule 54(2) relating dismissal of an employee of ACC without showing any reason.

A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, passed the order.

The Appellate Division pronounced the verdict after allowing an appeal filed by ACC against a High Court verdict that declared the rule 54 (2) illegal and asked the ACC to reinstate job of its sacked employee Ahsan Habib.

The Appellate Division also dismissed an appeal filed by Sharif Uddin challenging the legality of the rules 54.

Following the Appellate Division verdict, the sacked two ACC employees Ahsan Ali and Sharif Uddin will not get their jobs back.

Rule 54(2) of the ACC’s Employees (Service) Rules 2008 provides that the competent authority may remove an employee from service without assigning any reason by giving 90 days’ notice or paying 90 days’ salary in cash.

According to rule 54(2) of the ACC’s Employees (Service) Rules 2008, an ACC officer named M Ahsan Ali was removed from service. He filed a writ challenging the validity of Rule 54(2). In that writ, the High Court on October 27, 2011 declared the rule void.

ACC filed a leave to appeal against the High Court’s verdict, which was dismissed by the Appellate Division in November 2016. The ACC filed a review against it the following year.

After a hearing, the Appellate Division allowed the ACC to appeal on November 28, 2021. Until the appeal is disposed of, the effectivity of the judgment of the High Court is suspended. ACC later appealed in this regard.

Meanwhile, when Md Sharif Uddin, who was fired from the post of Deputy Assistant Director of ACC, was removed on February 16, 2022, he also filed a writ in the High Court challenging Rule 54(2) of the ACC’s Employees (Service) Rules 2008 and the validity of the dismissal. Later, on April 11, it came up for hearing.

However, the High Court adjourned the hearing of Sharif’s writ as the ACC’s review application was not resolved in the case of Md Ahsan Ali.

Later, on June 16 last year, Sharif applied for leave to appeal against the adjournment order in the Appellate Division.

On January 3, Sharif’s leave to appeal and ACC’s appeal came up together in the agenda of the Appellate Division for hearing. After hearing, the court fixed Thursday to deliver the verdict.