Teachers of non government schools and colleges filed a writ petition on Monday challenging a recent Election Commission decision to debar them and the other employees of these institutions from contesting Union Parishad polls scheduled to be held from May 31 to July 5.
A High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Anwarul Haque and Justice Md. Akram Hossain Chowdhury adjourned for two days hearing the petition filed by 47 teachers from 15 districts to see whether or not the EC retracts from its decision.
The election commissioner, Muhammed Sohul Hussain, told reporters at a news briefing at his office on April 21 that the EC would issue a statutory order very soon to debar the teachers from contesting the Union Parishad polls.
He also said that the Election Commission took the decision in accordance with Section 30 (1) of the Intermediate and Secondary Education Ordinance of 1961 which does not allow the teachers and the employees of educational institutions, run by the government or recognised by secondary
and higher secondary education boards, to contest
the local government elections.
But the teachers' lawyer ABM Nurul Islam said that the Election Commission decision not only violates but also disobeys an Appellate Division order in the case of Mofizul Haque.
He said the order did not debar teachers from contesting the elections.
He said, in its verdict, the Appellate Division had observed that a Union Parishad is neither a statutory body nor a local authority within the meaning of the General Clause Act.
On April 24, Shikkhak Karmachari Oikya Jote, an umbrella organization of the teachers and employees of schools and colleges demanded immediate withdrawal of the Election Commission decision.
It said that the 1979 rules governing the recruitment of the teachers and employees of the non-government institutions do not debar them from contesting the elections.
It also pointed out that the chief whip of Awami League Parliamentary Party Abdus Shahid, MP, is a teacher of a non-government college and the late Ahsan Ullah Master of Gazipur was elected to parliament when he was a schoolteacher.
It termed the Election Commission's recent decision as 'discriminatory' it sought the prime minister's intervention for resolving the matter.
Source: New Age
