However TH Khan, most senior of the Supreme Court lawyers, suggested that the Supreme Court should not impose a wholesale ban on fatwa as anyone who has been a victim of injustice through a wrong fatwa can go to the court and seek legal remedy.
They expressed the above opinions before the six-member bench of the Appellate Division, chaired by Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, as amici curiae (friends of court) during the hearing of a petition filed in 2001 seeking permission to appeal against a High Court verdict that had declared fatwa illegal.
The court adjourned the hearing till today.
Rafique criticized the High Court's verdict, delivered, on 1 January, 2000, declaring all kinds of fatwa illegal.
'The verdict that nobody can pronounce fatwa is not legal as fatwa is a kind of opinion which everybody has the constitutional right to express,' he added.
Rafique said that whether or not the fatwa will be obeyed depends on the knowledge and integrity of the person who has delivered it.
If anybody instigates others to give the wrong fatwa, the aggrieved person can file a case, he added.
Senior lawyer M Zahir, who was also called as amicus curiae, expressed views similar to the ones given by Rafique.
TH Khan told the court that it should concern itself with this case in particular, and should not venture to pronounce any general opinion on fatwa which is delivered all through the Muslim world, not only in Bangladesh.
'This court should not go beyond the judgement of this particular case of fatwa,' he said emphatically. 'If fatwa is declared illegal there will be dire consequences and chaos in our society.'
The High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Golam Rabbani and Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana on 1 January, 2001 declared fatwa illegal.
The court came up with the verdict after hearing a rule issued suo moto on 2 December, 2000 by another bench following a newspaper report of hilla marriage in Natore district. (Hilla is a rule which forces the divorced wife to marry another man and get divorced before she can remarry her former husband).
Mufti Md Toyeeb and Maulana Abul Kalam later filed the petition with the Appellate Division, seeking permission to appeal against the verdict.
The Appellate Division, after hearing the petition, stayed the High Court's verdict against the backdrop of the death of seven persons in violent clashes between the police and demonstrators when they took to the streets after the verdict against fatwa.
On 14 February, 2011, the Appellate Division deferred the hearing for two weeks and appointed senior lawyers TH Khan, Rafique-ul Huq, M Zahir, ABM Nurul Islam, Mahmudul Islam, Rokanuddin Mahmud, Rabia Bhuiyan, MI Farooqui and AF Hassan Ariff as amici curiae to elicit their opinions.
On 1 March, 2011, the Appellate Division started hearing the petitions.
Kamal Hossain and Sara Hossain pleaded for rights body Ain o Salish Kendra while Nazrul Islam defended the appellants.
Source: New Age
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