HC stays fresh suspension of Sylhet mayor Ariful

The High Court on Monday stayed a fresh order issued by the government on Sunday suspending Sylhet city mayor Ariful Huq Chowdhury.
The bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan also asked the government to explain in three days why a law that empowered the government to suspend mayors and councillors would not be declared illegal. 
The bench passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Ariful, also a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party challenging the legality of the Section 12(1) of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009, which empowered the local government division to
suspend mayors and councillors once a court took cognisance of charges against them.
The local government division suspended Ariful Huq on Sunday immediately after he joined the office following a High Court order passed on March 13 staying a previous government order suspending him on January 7, 2015.
The government suspended Ariful for the second time on Sunday stating that a Special Tribunal in Sunamganj took cognisance of a supplementary charge sheet the police submitted implicating him in a case filed for hurling bombs at a rally addressed by Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta in 2004.
The first order of suspension of Ariful was issued by the local government division in January 2015 stating that a trial court took cognisance of charges press against him in a supplementary charge sheet in the murder case of former finance minister ASM Kibria in 2004.
Ariful was elected mayor with the backing of BNP in 2013. 

- See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/12668/hc-stays-fresh-suspension-of-sylhet-mayor-ariful#sthash.UChW3019.dpuf