The government has initiated the process of preserving and displaying the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in all courtrooms across the country in accordance with the High Court (HC) order. In response to a writ petition, the HC had on August 29 issued an interim order directing the authorities to take the necessary steps to preserve and display the portrait of Bangabandhu in all courtrooms within the next two months.

On Monday, the law ministry issued a gazette notification to follow the HC directive. Speaking with reporters yesterday, Supreme Court (SC) registrar general Dr Md Zakir Hossain said that the SC administration had already collected around 100 portraits of Bangabandhu to implement the HC directive.

He also said they had already begun the process of preserving and displaying portraits of Bangabandhu in all courtrooms of the Appellate and HC divisions. “We hope the HC order will be implemented before the reopening of the SC, which is on vacation till October 12,” he added. He further said that the lower court authorities have already started displaying Bangabandhu’s portraits in the courtrooms.

In response to a writ petition, the HC bench, comprising Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader, also issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why its inaction to preserve and display the portrait of Bangabandhu should not be declared illegal. Secretaries to the ministries of law, housing and public works, and finance; the SC registrar general; and the HC registrar have been made respondents to reply to the rule within four weeks. SC lawyer advocate Subir Nandi Das had filed the writ petition on August 21. The petition challenged the inaction of the respondents with regard to preserving and displaying Bangabandhu’s portrait in every courtroom across the country.

The petitioner said that the respondents had an obligation to preserve and display Bangabandhu’s portrait in courtrooms as per Article 4 (A) of the Constitution, but they were not complying with the constitutional provision.

Article 4(A) states: “The portrait of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, shall be preserved and displayed at the offices of the President, the Prime Minister, the Speaker and the Chief Justice, and in head and branch offices of all government and semi-government offices, autonomous bodies, statutory public authorities, government and non-government educational institutions, embassies and missions of Bangladesh abroad.”