Chamber court upholds HC order reinstating 30% freedom fighter quota in govt jobs

The chamber court of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today (9 June) upheld the High Court (HC) order that reinstated the 30% freedom fighter quota in government jobs.

Chamber judge M Enayetur Rahim set 4 July for the full bench hearing at the Appellate Division on a petition seeking a stay order on the High Court order. 

Lawyers stated that the High Court's judgement will depend on the decision of the Appellate Division. Consequently, the chamber court's order ensures that the 30% freedom fighter quota in government jobs will remain in place for the time being.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state while senior lawyer Motahar Hossain Saju moved for the writ.

"During today's hearing, we emphasised that there can be no interference in the government's policy matters according to existing laws and various Supreme Court judgments," Attorney General AM Amin Uddin told reporters after the chamber court order.

He said the lawyer who moved for the writ argued citing a Supreme Court judgment regarding appointment based on quotas. 

"However, I pointed out that when that judgment was passed, the law on quota system was in effect. Reinstating a quota after its abolition at the policy level is not legally permissible," said the attorney general.

Earlier on 5 June, the High Court ruled that the notification issued on 4 October 2018, cancelling the freedom fighter quota in first and second-class government jobs is illegal.

A bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Khizir Hayat delivered the ruling today (5 June), giving a final hearing on a writ petition related to the matter.

On 6 December 2021, hearing a writ petition challenging the cancellation of the freedom fighter quota in government jobs, a High Court bench of Justices Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Md Kamrul Hossain Molla issued a rule asking why the 4 October 2018 notification cancelling the quota should not be declared illegal.

The Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification in 2018 cancelling the 10% women's quota, 30% freedom fighter quota and 10% district quota for direct recruitment from 9th grade and 10th to 13th grade.

It said that for direct recruitment to the posts of 9th grade (formerly 1st class) and 10th-13th grade (formerly 2nd class), recruitment will be made on the basis of a merit list. The existing quota system was abolished for direct recruitment to those posts.

Challenging the notification, seven people, including Ahidul Islam Tushar, President of the Central Command Council of the Children and Grandchildren of Freedom Fighters, filed a writ petition in the High Court.

At that time, the writ petitioners said the 30% quota for freedom fighters had been abolished for the 9th grade and 10th to 13th grades and placed in the 14th to 20th grades, which is tantamount to insulting the war heroes and their next generation.