Writ Petition No. 4502 of 2003

High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh

Facts: BLAST filed a writ petition challenging Section 4 of the Gram Sarkar Ain, 2003 [Village Government Act, 2003] as being inconsistent with the Constitution. Section 27 of the Act replaced the ‘Gram Parishad’ established under the স্থানীয় সরকার (গ্রাম সরকার) আইন, ১৯৯৭ [Local Government (Village Government), 1997] by the ‘Gram Sarkar’. Section 4(4) laid down that the ‘Gram Sarkar’ would be composed of one Gram Sarkar Prodhan, one adviser and thirteen members in each of the wards in the union. The member of the Union Parishad of the concerned ward would be the head of the Gram Sarkar and the member from the reserved seat of the Union would be the adviser, while the remaining thirteen members would be nominated. The Gram Sarkar was envisaged to be a supportive body to the Union Parishad and not an administrative unit as defined in Article 152(1) of the Constitution.

Argument: The petitioners argued that the ‘Gram Sarkar’ would undermine the functions of the Union Parishad. Since the members were to be selected by the Upazilla Nirbahi Officer, an executive officer, the Gram Sarkar Ain would in effect create a statutory body with definite functions but without any accountability to local people. It was submitted that by keeping the provision of nominating as many as 13 members out of the total 15, the representative character of the Gram Sarkar as envisaged in the preamble and other provisions was totally destroyed, which is inconsistent with Articles 7, 9, 11, 59 and 60 of the Constitution.

Order: The High Court after hearing the parties and discussing the relevant facts, constitutional provisions and the case of Kudrat-e-Elahi Panir v Bangladesh, 44 DLR (AD) 319, delivered judgment on 02.08.2005 holding that the Gram Sarkar Ain, 2003 was void. It observed that the Act had replaced the ‘Village Parishad’, an elected body and a local government by ‘Gram Sarkar’ a demonstratively autocratic body, which is inconsistent with the democratic spirit of the Constitution.

Laws Cited: Constitution, Articles 7, 9, 11, 59 and 60; স্থানীয় সরকার (গ্রাম সরকার) আইন, ১৯৯৭; Gram Sarkar Ain, 2003

Status: Judgment delivered