Mobile courts cant convict those already arrested
STAFF REPORTER
The High Court (HC), in its full verdict, has said there is no scope to convict a person under the Mobile Court Ain, 2009, if apprehended or arrested or detained by the police before his/her trial in a mobile court. The court says the entire proceedings of a mobile court will be vitiated and the order of conviction will be held illegal and without jurisdiction in such a case. The verdict says the magistrate who is empowered for holding a mobile court under the Mobile Court Ain, 2009, must take cognisance of the alleged offence instantly at the spot provided the same has been committed or unfolded in his presence and the said magistrate is also empowered to convict the accused and award the prescribed sentence to him if he pleads guilty.
The High Court bench, comprising of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das, made the observation in the full text of its verdict that had declared illegal the sentencing by a mobile court of a Tangail schoolboy. The copy of the verdict said that the cognisance of the offence has to be taken by the magistrate concerned instantly on the spot, and the lodging of a written complaint with the magistrate is not necessary. The verdict reads: It is true that Mobile Court Ain, 2009, provides for appeal against the judgment and order of conviction before the District Magistrate. But if malafide is found on the face of the record in a mobile court proceeding and the conviction is no-est in the eye of law, then this court [HC] has every jurisdiction to interfere with the matter exercising power under Article 102 of the Constitution. The HC observed that on careful examination of the above provisions of the Mobile Court Ain, 2009, it was clear that the magistrate empowered to hold a mobile court under the Mobile Court Ain, 2009, must take cognisance of the alleged offence instantly at the spot provided the same has been committed or unfolded in his presence and the magistrate is also empowered to convict the accused and award the prescribed sentence if he/she pleads guilty.
Delivering verdict on a suo moto rule, the HC judges, on October 18, had declared illegal a mobile court verdict sentencing Sabbir Shikder, a ninth-grader of the Protima Bonki Public High School in Sakhipur, to two years imprisonment for allegedly threatening a local ruling party lawmaker via Facebook.
It also directed the secretaries of public administration and home ministries and the inspector general of police to withdraw upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Mohammad Rafiqul Islam and officer-in-charge (OC) Mohammad Maksudul Alam from Sakhipur and place them outside the Dhaka division for a fair investigation.
The HC acquitted Sabbir Shikder and directed the chief judicial magistrate of Tangail to launch a judicial enquiry based on Shikders statement before it on September 27. Following two separate petitions filed by Rafiqul Islam and Maksudul Alam, the Supreme Court chamber judge on October 26 stayed for four weeks the section of the HC verdict ordering the government to transfer them. Shikder was sentenced to two years in jail by the mobile court led by UNO Rafiqul, reportedly under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act for threatening the lawmaker via Facebook.
