Bangladesh SC Sets November 20 for Landmark Verdict on Caretaker Government System Appeals

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has fixed November 20 for the delivery of its highly anticipated verdict on the appeals and review petitions seeking the reinstatement of the non-party Caretaker Government (CG) system.

A seven-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, set the date today after concluding 10 working days of intensive hearings on the legal challenge against the court’s 2011 judgment.

The appeals and review petitions—filed by the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and a group of citizens and rights organizations—target the 2011 majority verdict that declared the 13th Amendment (which introduced the CG system in 1996) null and void. The subsequent 15th Amendment, passed in 2011, formally abolished the system.

Basic Structure: Five citizens, including Badiul Alam Majumdar of Shujan, argued that the CG system was introduced through political consensus and had thus become a basic structure of the Constitution, which cannot be abolished.

Contradiction: The petitioners cited a contradiction in the 2011 verdict, where the short order allowed the 10th and 11th parliamentary elections to be held under the CG, but this provision was omitted from the full judgment.

Failed Polls: Freedom fighter Mofazzal Islam argued that subsequent elections in 2014, 2018, and 2024 proved that free and fair polls were not possible under political governments.

The Appellate Division granted leave to appeal against the 2011 verdict in August, a move that followed the student-led uprising in August last year and the formation of the Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.