The Supreme Court (SC) will order today on the leave to appeal petitions challenging the High Court (HC) verdict that had declared illegal and unconstitutional the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

The amendment legitimised all the governments that had been in power following the coup of August 15,1975 till April 9, 1979 including late president Ziaur Rahman's ascension to the presidency.

BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and three SC lawyers Tajul Islam, Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan and Munshi Ahsan Kabir filed two separate leave to appeal petitions with the SC against the HC verdict on May 25 last year.

Though they were not originally parties of the case, the BNP leader and three others filed the petitions

obtaining SC permission when the present government decided not to appeal against the HC verdict.

After concluding hearing on the petitions yesterday, the six-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Tafazzul Islam fixed Tuesday (today) morning for passing an order.

During the hearing for sixth day yesterday, principal state counsel in this case Advocate Mahmudul Islam told the apex court that parliament cannot ratify the martial law, since it cannot issue the martial law proclamation.

Since the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution endorsed the martial law proclamation, this amendment is illegal, he said.

Turning down the arguments of the petitioners' counsels. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam cited in the court the introductive speech delivered by then president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman before the

constituent assembly in 1972, saying that the 'secularism', 'socialism', 'democracy' and 'nationalism' were the basic principles of the Constitution.

Bangabandhu had said 'secularism' means that the people of different communities will perform their respective religions, and 'secularism' does not mean the absence of religion, the attorney general said, adding, the constituent assembly had approved this speech.

Earlier in the day. Barrister Moudud Ahmed, counsel for the three lawyers who filed one of the leave to appeal petitions, told the court the judgement and decision of this court should not be allowed to be used as a vehicle for the ruling party to bring any amendment to the Constitution claiming that such amendments have been made by the SC.

Earlier on January 3, the SC lifted its four-year-old stay order on the HC verdict that had declared the Fifth Amendment illegal and unconstitutional.