<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">The Appellate Divisson of the Supreme Court (SC) today has given Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami two mounts to prepare a brief statement of an appeal filed by the party against a High Court (HC) verdict that declared the registration of the party with Election Commission “illegal”.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawyer Joynal Abedin Tuhin and Advocate Matiur Rahman Akanda represented Jamaat-e-Islami while Barrister Tanya Amir appeared for the writ petitioner during the proceedings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Barrister Taniya Amir said the apex court in its order said the appeal of Jamaat-e-Islami would be defaulted (dismissed) if the party did not submit the brief statement within eight weeks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Advocate Matiur Rahman Akanda said as per the court order, Jamaat-e-Islami will take part in the hearing and it is expected that the party will get back its registration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In August, 2013, the High Court declared Jamaat’s registration illegal following a writ petition filed in 2009 by Bangladesh Tariqat Federation’s Secretary General Rezaul Haque Chandpuri and 24 others.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the petition, they said Jamaat was a religion-based political party and it did not believe in the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, Jamaat-e-Islami filed the appeal with the apex court challenging the HC verdict. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>