Top court stays HC verdict on condemned cell

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed until August 25 the High Court verdict that ordered the authorities concerned to move the death row prisoners with pending appeals to ordinary cells of jails from condemned cells.

Justice M Inayetur Rahim of the Appellate Division gave this order after hearing the appeal filed against the High Court's verdict.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin argued on behalf of the state, while advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir was in favor of the writ.

On Monday, the High Court declared it illegal and unlawful to keep the accused in the condom cell before the death sentence was finalized.

The death sentence is only considered final if it is upheld by the Appellate Division on review and the president declines to pardon the convict.

At the same time, the court declared Rule 980 of the Jail Code unconstitutional.

After the final hearing of the ruling issued on the writ, the High Court bench consisting of Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif and Justice Md Bazlur Rahman announced this verdict for about 3 and a half hours.

Those who have been kept in condemned cells or solitary cells in prisons have been ordered to be transferred to general cells in phases before their death sentence is finalized.

The High Court had given two years for this work.

On September 2, 2021, a writ petition was filed with the High Court challenging the legality of keeping the death row convict in a condemned cell before the final disposal of the case.

Shishir Monir filed the writ petition on behalf of three death row convicts who were in a condemned cell in Chittagong Central Jail.

The writ petition sought the issuance of a rule asking why confinement in a condemned cell before the finalization of the death penalty should not be declared illegal.

At the same time, the writ requested to transfer the three convicts from the condemned cell to the normal cell.