HC stays reconstitution of NSU trustee board

The High Court today issued a stay order on a government decision that had reconstituted the trustee board of North South University (NSU) in 2022.
The court also issued a rule asking the authorities to explain why the decision should not be declared illegal.
The bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Sashanka Shekhar Sarkar issued the order and the rule after hearing two writ petitions filed by six former members of the trustee board.
They had challenged the legality of the decision to reconstitute the board after being dropped during the reconstitution.
The petitioners are Aziz Al Qaiser, Azim Uddin Ahmed, Benajir Ahmed, MA Kashem, Rehana Rahman and Mohammed Shahjahan.
Md Imam Hossain and Kazi Akhtar Hosain, the lawyers for the petitioners, told reporters that the High Court order has revived the previous trustee board that included their clients as founders and life members. The board led by the petitioners will operate following the HC order.
Deputy Attorney General Aynunnahar Siddiqua and Assistant Attorney General Md Selim Azad represented the state during the hearing of the writ petitions.
The Sheikh Hasina-led government reconstituted the NSU trustee board on August 16, 2022, after a University Grants Commission (UGC) probe had “found involvement some of its members in anti-state activities, sponsorship of militancy, corruption and arbitrariness”.
The Secondary and Higher Education Division said in an order on August 16, 2022, that such actions violate the law and the Penal Code.
It also said that four trustees were behind bars following a High Court order in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission for their alleged involvement in financial irregularities in land purchasing for the university.