The High Court has concluded the hearing on a writ petition seeking a directive to halt the oath-taking of BNP leader Ishraque Hossain as the mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). The court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Thursday at 10:45 am.

The hearing took place on Wednesday (May 21) before a High Court bench comprising Justice Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury.

Barristers AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Kaiser Kamal represented Ishraque Hossain, while senior lawyer Mohammad Hossain argued in support of the writ petition.

Earlier, the initial hearing began at 1:00 pm on Tuesday (May 20) and continued until around 2:00 pm before being adjourned. It resumed at 4:10 pm and concluded at approximately 5:15 pm. Although a verdict was initially expected at 12:30 pm on Wednesday, it was deferred to Thursday.

The DSCC election was held on February 1, 2020, in which Awami League candidate Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh was elected mayor. The Election Commission (EC) published the official gazette of the results on February 2, and Taposh took office after being sworn in.

In that election, Taposh received over 400,000 votes, while his nearest rival, BNP candidate Ishraque Hossain, secured 236,000 votes. Alleging electoral irregularities and corruption, Ishraque filed a case on March 3, 2020, seeking to annul the results.

Following the fall of the Awami League government amid a mass uprising in August last year, all city corporation mayors were removed. Since then, Additional Secretary Shahjahan Mia has been serving as the administrator of DSCC.

On March 27 this year, Judge Md Nurul Islam of Dhaka’s First Joint District Judge and Electoral Tribunal annulled the previous result and declared Ishraque Hossain as the elected mayor of DSCC, based on the 2020 election. The court also instructed that a gazette be issued within 10 days.

Subsequently, on April 27, the Election Commission issued the gazette officially declaring Ishraque Hossain as mayor.

However, on the same day, two individuals—Rafiqul Islam and Mamunur Rashid—served legal notices challenging both the tribunal verdict and the gazette. The notice urged the authorities not to proceed with the oath-taking ceremony for Ishraque.

Their lawyer argued that the verdict was delivered hastily and without following due process. “We expected the EC to challenge the verdict, but they did not. The law adviser reportedly said the notification was issued without seeking the Law Ministry’s opinion,” the lawyer stated. “The tribunal cannot issue an order without legal effect—particularly when the mayoral term has already ended and the post has been declared vacant through an ordinance.”

Following this, Mamunur Rashid filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the March 27 verdict and the April 27 gazette. The petition sought a rule asking why the verdict and gazette should not be declared illegal and why an injunction should not be issued against administering the oath to Ishraque Hossain. It also requested a stay on their implementation while the rule is under consideration.

Meanwhile, Ishraque Hossain’s supporters have launched a blockade at Nagar Bhaban, demanding that he be sworn in as mayor. Demonstrations in support of this demand have been ongoing over the past several days.