Petition filed seeking deferment of DCC polls

A petition was filed with the Appellate Division on Thursday against a High Court Division order that turned down a writ petition seeking deferment of Dhaka city polls scheduled for January 30.

Advocate Ashoke Kumar Ghosh moved the Appellate Division seeking its directives to announce a new schedule for holding the polls that coincide with Saraswati Puja, reports United News of Bangladesh.

The appeal will likely be heard by the Chamber Judge on Sunday, he said.

He moved the High Court on January 6 seeking deferment of the polls. He pointed out that Saraswati Puja, one of the biggest religious festivals of the minority Hindu community, is being celebrated at all universities, colleges and other educational institutions across the country for long as per tradition.

Ashoke argued that since polling stations will be set up in different educational institutions in the city for the polls, the celebrations of the Saraswati Puja will be hampered.

But the High Court turned down his plea on January 14.

The bench passed the order considering the progress in the election process and the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations scheduled to take place on February 2.

On December 22 last, Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda announced the election schedule for the polls to DNCC and DSCC, fixing January 30 as the voting date.

Kamruzzaman