The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday extended for two weeks its earlier order that had stayed a High Court verdict directing the government to recognise 2,367 members of a guerrilla force as freedom fighters. A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order following a government petition that sought stay on the HC verdict.
Earlier, on October 9, the chamber judge of the Appellate Division stayed till October 30 a High Court verdict that had directed the government to recognise 2,367 members of the guerrilla force, who participated in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, as freedom fighters.
The chamber judge also sent the stay petition to the full bench of the Appellate Division for its hearing on October 30. In a verdict, the HC had on September 8 declared illegal the dropping of names of 2,367 guerrillas, who participated in the 1971 Liberation War, from the list of freedom fighters in 2013.
It also directed the government to recognise the guerrillas as freedom fighters and provide them all the facilities from 22 July 2013.
After a final hearing on a writ petition, the HC bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman came up with the order.
On July 22, 2013 the Liberation War Affairs Ministry had published the names of 2,367 guerrilla members through a gazette notification. But, the government on October 29, 2014 revoked their freedom fighter’s certificates by issuing another gazette notification.
On January 19, 2015, former deputy commander of special guerrilla forces Pankaj Bhattacharjee filed a petition challenging the legality of dropping the names of the guerrillas from the list of freedom fighters.  After a brief hearing on the petition, the HC on January 19, 2012 stayed for three months a government action that canceled the recognition of 2,367 guerilla members as freedom fighters. It also issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why its decision to cancel the gazette notification giving that recognition should not be declared illegal.