Writ Petition No. 5863 of 2009

High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh

Facts: BLAST, with Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh Mohila Porishad, BRAC Human Rights and Legal Services Programme and Nijera Kori, filed a writ petition challenging the imposition and execution of extra judicial penalties in local salish by persons without any lawful authority. The petition was filed following several newspaper reports and investigations by the petitioners of violence/extra-judicial penalties inflicted on women and girls in the name of ‘fatwas’ by local religious leaders and other powerful persons. It was alleged that a number of deaths, suicides and incidents of grievous hurt of women were arising from punishment given in salish, but the law enforcing agencies took no action to prevent or punish these illegal actions.

Arguments: The petitioners argued that infliction of brutal punishments, for example, caning, whipping and beating in local salish by persons without any judicial authority constituted violations of the rights to life, to equal protection and to be treated in accordance with law, and to not be subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment as guaranteed by Articles 27, 31, 32, 35(2) and 43 of the Constitution.

Order: The High Court, after hearing the parties at length, delivered a judgment on 08.07.2010 declaring the imposition of all sorts of extrajudicial punishments in the name of ‘fatwa’ to be illegal, and also affirming that any person involved, present or assisting in any conviction or execution of extrajudicial punishment shall be liable to punishment under the Penal Code, 1860. Earlier the Court issued a Rule Nisi on 25.08.2009 directing the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and law-enforcing agencies and Union Parishads and Pourashavas, among others, to take immediate measures against extra-judicial penalties issued in the course of salish, and to show cause as to why their failure to prevent such illegal acts in compliance with their statutory and constitutional obligations should not be declared to be illegal and without any lawful effect.

Laws Cited: Constitution, Articles 27, 31, 32, 35(2) and 43; Penal Code, 1860

International Instruments Cited: Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), 1984; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1979

Status: Judgment delivered, not yet reported