Attorney General: Caretaker system will serve as supportive mechanism for democracy

Published : Thursday, 20 November, 2025 at 3:12 PM Count : 6

Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman said that the caretaker system will now serve as a supportive mechanism for the country’s democracy.

“From today, the people of Bangladesh will be able to cast their own votes. Daytime voting will not take place at night, and dead people will not come to vote,” he said at a press conference at his office on Thursday following the Appellate Division’s verdict restoring the caretaker system.

He said the caretaker government system had been abolished through the 15th Amendment, which the High Court had termed unconstitutional, adding that the amendment was brought “with bad intentions.”

In response to a question on whether the formation of the caretaker government would now require a yes/no referendum, the attorney general said: “No. It has been restored — meaning it has returned to its previous status.”

He emphasized that the caretaker system is not immutable: “The caretaker government is not the Quran or the Bible. Nothing in this verdict becomes Quranic or biblical. After 20 years, if people think this system has decayed and that there is a better way to protect democracy, Parliament can decide that.”

Asked whether the Appellate Division had termed its earlier verdict “tainted,” he said: “That verdict was quashed because it was tainted. We presented many grounds. One of them was that former chief justice Khairul Haque and his associates committed an offence under Section 219 of the Penal Code while writing the judgment.”

“If you deliver a verdict verbally, it stands as a verdict. There is a legal process to alter it—either the judges themselves could have changed it by issuing a review number, or someone else could have sought a review. But instead, priority was given to the verbal verdict,” he said.

He added that the portion of the 15th Amendment that abolished the caretaker system “was not challenged in the Appellate Division.”

In response to a question on whether the latest verdict was influenced by the political situation, the attorney general said: “I do not think so. Consider the elections held after the caretaker system was abolished, and now consider the path of democracy after its reinstatement. The verdict is not political—it is a legal decision.”

FP/A