A two-judge bench of the High Court (HC) on Monday delivered a split verdict on a writ petition that challenged the legality of Article 70 that says parliament members should vacate their seats for switching or voting against their parties.
Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, senior judge of the HC bench, issued a rule asking the government as to why Article 70 should not be declared unconstitutional while Justice Md Ashraful Kamal, junior judge of the bench, summarily rejected the petition.
Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Eunus Ali Akanda, who filed the writ petition on April 12, 2017, said the petition will now be sent to the Chief Justice who will assign another bench to hear it.
The HC bench on August 8 started the hearing on the writ petition.
According to Article 70 of the Constitution, the office of a lawmaker becomes void once he or she resigns from his or her political party or votes against the party that nominated him or her.
"Under democracy, the republic will run by the elected representatives. Members of parliament are representatives of people. But they cannot independently vote in public interest as their membership will be cancelled under this constitutional article," Advocate Eunus Ali Akanda told the Daily Observer.
