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Guidelines on Fatwa

3 yrs on, SC yet to release full verdict

Ashutosh Sarkar
The Supreme Court is yet to release its full judgment in a case relating to fatwa or Islamic religious edict, more than three years into the announcement of a short verdict on it.
Due to an absence of a detailed verdict, the nation is deprived of a guideline neces-
sary to prevent torture and violence against women, according to some lawyers and human rights activists.
The SC's full verdict is expected to provide guidelines to stop abuses of fatwa and misinterpretations of religion, they said.
Meanwhile, a few SC lawyers, requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star that the apex
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court usually did not take so much time to release a full verdict in any case.
They also could not say why the SC still had not released the detailed verdict in the case.
The Appellate Division declared fatwa legal in "religious matters" on May 12, 2011, but it categorically said fatwa could not be used to punish anyone.
Fatwa also cannot be issued to violate or affect the rights or reputation or dignity of any person which are covered by the law of the land.
"No punishment, including physical violence and/or mental torture in any form, can be imposed or inflicted on anybody in pursuance of fatwa," it said in the short verdict.
After hearing two separate appeals, the apex court ruled that only "properly educated persons" might issue fatwa, but may not force anyone to accept it.
Any coercion or undue influence in any form to force it on anyone is forbidden, it said categorically.
A six-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by then chief justice ABM Khairul Haque, had delivered the verdict by majority opinion as the judges could not unanimously agree on the decision.
The bench did not disclose the names of the judges who disagreed with the decision.
SG Registrar AKM Shamsul Islam recently told The Daily Star that the relevant File of the fatwa related case was now with Justice ABM Khairul Haque for writing the full judgment.
Once Justice Khairul Haque finishes his writing, the others judges
may agree with him or may add in the writing, he said.
The SC registrar also said the full judgment would be released after all the judges have affixed their signatures in the verdict.
Justice Khairul Haque told this correspondent yesterday that he did not receive the file of the fatwa case from the SC for writing the verdict and he did not know where the file of the case remained at this moment.
Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra, told The Daily Star that criminal offences, including killing, were still taking place in the name of fatwa, although the number of such killings had gone down after the SC verdict.
Torturing people in the name of fatwa is illegal, she said, adding that people, who torture women in the name of fatwa, were taking the opportunity to misuse it in the absence of the detailed verdict.
If the full verdict is available, these people would be bound to obey its guidelines and would not misinterpret the religion, she added.
ZI Khan Panna, trustee member of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, said the nation was being deprived of guidelines to stop torture in the name of fatwa, as the full judgment was not available.
Barrister Belayet Hossain, who moved one of the appeals, said if the SC had released the full text, the government would have got guidelines and could have taken effective steps to stop the misuse of fatwa and misinterpretations of Islam.