Jamaat-e-Islami has filed a petition requesting the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to scrap the caretaker government system.
Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar filed the petition on Wednesday, according to Shishir Monir, the group's lawyer.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had earlier filed a similar petition seeking to overturn the 2011 verdict annulling the 13th constitutional amendment, which established the election-time caretaker government system in 1996, bdnews24.com reports.
After the fall of military strongman HM Ershad's regime in 1990 in the face of a mass uprising, a general election was held under an interim government, although this arrangement was not yet formalised in the constitution.
In 1996, the BNP government, under pressure from opposition movements led by the Awami League, passed the 13th constitutional amendment in parliament, establishing the caretaker government system.
During the Awami League's subsequent term in office, the amendment's validity was challenged in 1998 by Advocate M Salim Ullah and two other lawyers in a writ petition filed in the High Court.
The petition was dismissed on Aug 4, 2004, during a later BNP government, thereby upholding the caretaker government system.
In 2005, the petitioners appealed this decision. After a state of emergency was declared in 2006 amid political turmoil, doubts arose about the effectiveness of the caretaker government, which had then been in power for two years.
After the Awami League returned to power in 2008, the Appellate Division began hearing the case concerning the 13th amendment on Mar 1, 2010.
The appellants, the state, and eight top lawyers serving as amicus curiae argued in favour of preserving the caretaker government system, with support even from then attorney general Mahbubey Alam.
On May 10, 2011, the Appellate Division in a majority ruling declared the amendment unconstitutional. Then chief justice ABM Khairul Haque, along with Justices Md Muzammel Hossain, SK Sinha, and Syed Mahmud Hossain concurred in the judgment.
Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana gave dissenting opinions, while Justice Md Iman Ali refrained from taking a definitive position and deferred to the national parliament's decision.
Before the full judgment was published, the 15th constitutional amendment was passed by the parliament on Jun 30, 2011, and was ratified by the president on July 3.
