The High Court on Sunday issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why the list of the convicts whose imprisonment or punishment had been commuted or suspended by the President under section 49 of the constitution over the past 33 years, should not be published.
The HC bench of Justice Kazi Zinat Hoque and Justice Aynun Nahar Siddiqua issued the rule after hearing a writ petition.
The court also issued another rule asking the government to explain as to why the inactiveness of those responsible individuals who failed to publish the list of the convicts whose imprisonment or punishment have been commuted or suspended by the President from 1991 till July 31, 2024, should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.
Cabinet Division Secretary, Home Affairs Secretary and public division secretary of the President's Office have been made respondent to the rule which is returnable in four weeks.
Senior Advocate Barrister Omar Faruk stood for the petitioner. He filed the writ petition before the court in March.
On August 25, last year, Barrister Omar Faruk served a legal notice to the authorities’ concerned seeking list of those convicts whose punishment or imprisonment have been commuted or suspended by the President between 1991 to July 31, 2024 under section 49 of the constitution.
The notice also asked to submit the list within 15 days after issuance of the legal notice.
According to the notice, the public has the right to know how, through what process and on whose recommendations or influence the president has pardoned convicted and notorious criminals.
For years, the president has pardoned many criminals, including those convicted in murder cases, it said.
Criminals who received death sentences or life imprisonment, after being pardoned by the president, have been released from jail and have once again spread terror in society as mafia dons, said the notice.
The people of the country wanted to know the process by which the president pardons convicted individuals and the criteria for such pardons.
It also requested the authorities concerned to submit the list within 15 days.