November 22, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 11, 1428

DHAKA, Nov 21: The High Court of Bangladesh on Wednesday declared illegal a notification asking for the wealth statement of detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

A bench, comprising Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury, delivered the verdict after hearing a writ petition filed by Hasina challenging the notification issued by the Anti-Corruption Commission on July 17.

In the verdict, the court observed that the commission did not follow due process of law in notifying Sheikh Hasina.

The commission, after conducting preliminary inquiries, had to be sanguine that a person was possessing wealth beyond his/her known sources of income before asking the person concerned to submit wealth report, the court pointed out, adding that no such inquiry had been conducted before serving notices on Hasina.

The same High Court bench on Aug 7, after hearing a writ petition filed by Hasina, stayed operation of the notification.