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The High Court has expressed its inability to hear a petition filed by Md. Julius Caesar Talukdar seeking the restoration of his candidacy and ballot number in the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election.
The court stated that the Appellate Division has already ruled on the DUCSU election, and therefore, it will not entertain any petition on the matter.
On Thursday (September 4), a High Court bench comprising Justice Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Justice Foyez Ahmed made these remarks.
Justice Akram Hossain Chowdhury, the senior judge of the bench, told the petitioner’s lawyer, Sardar Abul Hossain, that previous petitions regarding the DUCSU election had been dismissed. “The Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University is my relative. Moreover, the Appellate Division has already intervened in the DUCSU election. Therefore, we will not hear any petition regarding it,” the court said. The bench added, “You have misrepresented the petition. If we had known it was about the DUCSU election, we would not have taken it up.”
Later, the court effectively removed the petition from the hearing schedule. Shishir Monir appeared as the lawyer representing Dhaka University.
Earlier, Md. Julius Caesar Talukdar, who was a candidate for the vice president post in the DUCSU election, filed a petition seeking the restoration of his name and ballot number in the final candidate list. The petition also sought a stay of the DUCSU election and the DUCSU Hall Union election until his candidacy and ballot number were reinstated.
The petition questioned the exclusion of Talukdar’s name and ballot number from the final candidate list and challenged the legality of the university syndicate forming a three-member investigation committee regarding the allegations against him.
Notably, Julius Caesar Talukdar was a candidate for the DUCSU vice president post. After verification, the election commission published the final candidate list on August 26, including his name as a vice president candidate with ballot number 26.
After the final list was published, the House Tutor and Assistant Returning Officer of Salimullah Muslim Hall submitted allegations to the election commission claiming Talukdar’s involvement with a banned student organization. The Election Appellate Tribunal conducted a hearing on the matter but did not make any decision regarding his candidacy, instead forwarding recommendations to the election commission. Based on these recommendations, the election commission removed Talukdar’s candidacy and ballot number.
Talukdar sent a legal notice to the Chief Returning Officer on August 27, highlighting that he was not given an opportunity to defend himself. When no action was taken, he filed a petition in the High Court seeking restoration of his candidacy.
