Provision of permission to arrest civil servants cancelled

The High Court (HC) has cancelled a provision of Public Service Act 2018 that prohibited law enforcement from arresting government employees without prior approval in any criminal case.

The HC bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akand passed the order on Thursday following a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh in this regard. 

Senior lawyer Manzil Murshid appeared in the court on behalf of the writ petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Arabindo Kumar Roy represented the state. 

Earlier on Wednesday, the HC observed that it’s one kind of immunity to add a provision in the law making it mandatory for police to take permission from higher authorities before arresting any civil servant on charges related to their job.

How does the government give the immunity to a group of people in making laws, questioned the same HC bench during the hearing of a rule issued in this regard.

The bench also observed that such a provision would encourage corruption.

Following the writ petition, another High Court bench on October 21 in 2019 issued a rule asking the concerned bodies of the government to explain as to why Section 41(1) of the ‘Sarkari Chakori Ain, 2018’ has made it mandatory for police to take permission from higher authorities before arresting any civil servant on charges related to their job should not be declared unconstitutional and as to why the Section should not be scrapped.

The government issued a gazette notification of the law on November 14 in 2018 saying that the law will be effective through another notification.

On September 26 of that year, the government issued the second gazette notification saying that the law will be effective from October 1 in 2018.