The Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry in a surprise move has amended the mobile court ordinance empowering executive magistrates to try electoral offences, ignoring the jurisdiction of judicial magistrates to do the job.
Legal experts have termed the amendment illegal and asked the law ministry to cancel it, saying executive magistrates, who are also government officials, have no authority to try parliamentary polls offences.
The law ministry’s action might put the Election Commission (EC) in an awkward position since it has already planned to assign judicial magistrates to try offences in the upcoming parliamentary election, EC officials said.
On November 16, the law ministry amended the schedule of the Mobile Court Ordinance 2007, inserting the Representation of People Order (RPO) in it. And this empowered executive magistrates to try electoral offences.
But according to the ordinance, a mobile court has the authority only to fine individuals for offences, and no authority to award imprisonment to those committing offences.
But an individual may be sentenced to imprisonment for two to seven years, and also fined for committing electoral offences on the polling day, legal experts noted.
The amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that separated the judiciary from the executive last year empowered only judicial magistrates to try parliamentary polls offences.
Contacted, Justice Ghulam Rabbani said electoral offences are grave in nature because these might jeopardise the process of election to parliament which greatly determines the fate of the nation for long five years.
“So, these offences should not be tried by executive magistrates, who have no power to award imprisonment under the electoral laws,” said Rabbani, a former judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Moreover, the CrPC provides that electoral offences should be tried by judicial magistrates, he said. “Probably this aspect has not been noticed by the law ministry.”
Eminent jurist Shahdeen Malik said the change in the schedule of the mobile court ordinance has been made without lawful authority.
“Any rule made by the government cannot contradict an act of parliament or other laws. But the amendment to the schedule of the mobile court ordinance override the ordinance,” he told The Daily Star.
The amendment to the schedule also overrode the amendment to the CrPC, he said.
According to the RPO, magistrates are assigned on polling day to hold summary trial of electoral offences under sections 73, 78, 79, 80, 81 (1) and 82 of it.
EC officials said around 300 magistrates will be assigned to try parliamentary polls offences.
They noted that executive magistrates cannot polls offences as they have jurisdiction only to fine the offenders. But punishment for polls offences includes both fine and imprisonment.
Categories: Bangla, Bangladesh
