HC disposes contempt petition against Sarjis

The High Court has dismissed a contempt of court petition filed against National Citizen Party (NCP) leader Sarjis Alam over his critical comments regarding the judiciary.

The bench of Justice Fahmida Kader and Justice Syed Zahid Mansur delivered the verdict on Sunday.

The petition was filed following Sarjis Alam’s Facebook post on May 22, where he criticized the High Court’s decision to reject a writ petition seeking to prevent Ishraque Hossain from being sworn in as Dhaka mayor. In his post, Sarjis questioned the court’s legitimacy by stating, “If verdicts can be taken by creating mobs, then what is the need for this High Court?”

In response, Sarjis was issued a notice through the Supreme Court’s Registrar General, instructing him to apologize in writing to the Chief Justice and to hold a public press conference within two hours of receiving the notice. When Sarjis failed to apologize, a contempt petition was filed against him on May 28.

Following the court’s order, petitioner’s lawyer Md. Jasim Uddin said, “The full content of the court’s observations will be clear once we receive the complete verdict.”