ICT-BD [ICT-21] Miscellaneous Case No. 01 of 2014
Order: 02 December 2014
lewdness. Judiciary of Bangladesh is not only to uphold its dignity and
rule of law. It feels obligation to value the nation’s emotion and
sentiment too which are mingled with our heard earned independence.
42. On part of the contemnor it has been tried to ‘justify’ the
‘truthfulness’ or ‘factual correctness’ of the criticism he made. First, it is
to be noted that in creating confusion about the ‘death figure in 1971’
the contemnor has cited many sources describing conflicting
information. The contemnor did not arrive at decision as to which
information he considered correct or accurate one. Without going into
accuracy of any of information why he opted to initiate a debate on a
sensitive issue involving nation’s emotion? Of course, his intention was
not ‘fair’. Besides, factual correctness of comment made in the alleged
criticism cannot be recognised as ‘defence’. In this regard we rely upon
the observation made by our Apex Court in the case of Advocate, Riaz
Uddin Khan vs. Mahmudur Rahman [ 63 DLR(AD) 2011, page 53,
para 79] which is as below:
“There are numerous decisions of the Apex
Courts of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh that
truthfulness or factual correctness is not
recognized as defence in the law of contempt.
There is hardly any decision of English or of
this sub-continent on the jurisprudence of
contempt that such defence to be recognized.”
43. Criticism made on ‘death figure in 1971’ though not relates to merit
of any of cases tried by and pending before the Tribunals does not seem
to have been designed in ‘good faith’. And the criticism so made,
though cites sources, disgraces and demeans nation’s wishes and holy
emotion. We fail to understand how such criticism attacking the nation’s
emotion conforms to ‘public good’. It is true that debate on the issue of
‘death figure in 1971’ does not relate to merit of any case under the Act
of 1973. But provoking debate on this issue by circulating criticism in
personal blog rather makes the contemnor gravely disrespectful to the
nation. Living in the light and air of this land, the contemnor, a foreign
national, has exceeded limit of his professional ethics.
44. We reiterate that we always welcome post verdict criticism but at
the same time we cannot allow an individual or a journalist making such
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