HC allows case filing with NID, passport

The High Court in a written order on Wednesday asked the police to allow complainants to file cases submitting the copy of their passport or NID card of their introducers.

The police are also free to record cases after identifying the complainants through other methods, the court said.

Earlier on June 14, the High Court in a verbal order asked the police stations and magistrate courts to make mandatory the submission of the copy of the National Identity card of complainants as only document for recording cases.

Asked to comment over the High Court’s directive some legal experts had told New Age that making mandatory submission of NID cards of complainants for recording cases night create another obstruction to citizens’ fundamental right to access to justice.

They had also suggested that the High Court should keep other options like birth certificate, educational certifications, passports and other methods for identifying complainants as many citizens might not have NID cards for various reasons.

An online bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the directive after hearing a writ petition filed by Md Akramul Ahsan Kanchan, a dyeing factory owner of Fatuallah at Narayanganj, who faced 49 ‘fictitious’ cases filed by the people who could not be traced by the police during the investigations.  

The court in the written order said that numbers of NID cards or passports in applicable cases, would be mentioned in the first information report of a case.

The court said that the copies of NID cards of the identifiers of the complainants would require to be mentioned in the cases if the complainants do not have any NID cards.

The court asked the police to apply its own method to identify the complaints in case of unavailability of their passports or NID Cards.

The HC asked the magistrate courts to identify the lawyers, who would present the complainant, in case of unavailability of passport or NID card of the complainant.

If the complainants are foreign nationals, he or she would submit the numbers of their passports issued by the country concerned, the court said.

The High Court asked the High Court’s registrar to send the copy of the two-page order to the home and law secretaries and the inspector general of the police.

News Courtesy-https://www.newagebd.net/article/141739/hc-allows-case-filing-with-nid-passport