Court Correspondent:
The High Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition challenging the legality of cancellation of Gazipur City Corporation’s (GCC) former mayor Jahangir Alam’s nomination paper for the mayoral post in the upcoming GCC election.
The HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Mohammad Mahbub-Ul-Alam rejected the petition saying that he was a loan defaulter till the submission day of the nomination paper which made him inel-igible.
Former Additional Attorney General MK Rahman appeared for the petitioner while Attorney General A M Amin Uddin for the state.
The writ petition was submitted to the HC bench concerned a week after Gazipur’s Returning Officer (RO) Faridul Islam cancelled his nomination paper in a primary scrutiny, as he is a “loan defaulter”.
On May 4, Jahangir appealed to Dhaka divisional commissioner against the cancellation; the appeal was rejected on the same day.
After being rejected, Jahangir moved the HC, challenging the cancellation.
On April 30, during primary scrutiny, Jahangir’s nomination was cancelled while his mother Zaida Khatun’s nomination was declared valid.
Jahangir was the guarantor of an industrial organization. He was declared a loan defaulter along with the organization, the returning officer said.
Though the former mayor and his counsel submitted documents demonstrating paying off the loan along with the nomination paper, the returning officer cancelled his nomination during the scrutinization.
