This case was filed on behalf of Mr. Ishraque Hossain on 04/03/2020. The defendant responded to the case and subsequently filed a petition for dismissal, which was rejected by the honorable court. Against this order, the defendant filed a miscellaneous appeal with the Honorable High Court and kept the case “out of list” for an extended period, deliberately delaying its resolution.

Later, the Honorable High Court vacated the stay and sent the case back to the lower court for hearing. Following this, the issues of the case were framed, and testimonies were recorded from the plaintiff and other witnesses. After presenting arguments, the court announced its verdict.

In its judgment, the court did not take into account serious allegations including EVM fraud, vote rigging, and obstruction of voters’ rights. The verdict was delivered in a one-sided manner. However, during that time, ample reports and information on these allegations were available in both electronic and print media, as well as from other sources.

In the verdict, under Section 59(b) of the Election Act 2010, the court declared Mr. Md. Fazle Noor Taposh—former Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation—as unlawfully elected, annulled the previously published gazette, and ordered the issuance of a new gazette declaring Mr. Ishraque Hossain as the legitimate Mayor.

It is worth noting that our initial plea was to declare the result and gazette of the 2020 Dhaka South City Corporation election—published on 04/02/2020—as illegal and void. Later, we amended the petition to assert that Mr. Ishraque Hossain was wrongfully shown as defeated and requested a declaration recognizing him as the lawful Mayor. The honorable court granted our prayer and delivered the verdict in our favor based on all the presented evidence.