Court hearing on quota reform tomorrow

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will hold a hearing tomorrow (10 July) on a plea against the High Court’s judgment reinstating the freedom fighter quota system for first and second-class government jobs.

Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, chamber judge of the Appellate Division, fixed the hearing date today.

The chamber judge’s court convened at 11:30 am solely to schedule the hearing for this case.

Earlier, the party petitioning for quota reform appointed a new lawyer and applied for a hearing in the special chamber court of the Appellate Division.

As the complete High Court judgment reinstating the 30% freedom fighter quota in government jobs has not yet been published, the chamber court used special power to pass the order today.

Advocate Shah Manjurul Haque represented the petition in court.

“The chamber court has fixed the date for hearing the appeal before the full bench of the Appellate Division headed by the Chief Justice,” he told The Business Standard.

The Ministry of Public Administration issued a circular on 4 October 2018 cancelling the freedom fighter quota for direct recruitment from ninth to 13th grade.

The circular stated that direct recruitment for posts in the 9th grade (formerly 1st class) and 10th-13th grade (formerly 2nd class) should be based on a merit list, abolishing the existing quota system for these posts. The quotas cancelled included 10% for women, 30% for freedom fighters, 10% for districts, 5% for tribal communities, and 1% for the disabled.

In 2021, the Central Command Council of the Children and Grandchildren of Freedom Fighters filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the cancellation of the 30% freedom fighter quota in this circular.

On 5 June last, the High Court ruled in favour of maintaining the 30% freedom fighter quota and ordered the cancellation of the government’s circular.

Later, on 4 July, the Appellate Division upheld the High Court’s judgment and stated that a regular appeal could be filed if the “state” opposed this verdict.

As a result, the quota remained in government service until the full verdict was published and the appeal was resolved. Students and job seekers are currently protesting against this quota system.