A High Court bench on Wednesday refused to accept a writ petition challenging the Election Commission's decisions to hold the national election and a referendum on February 12.
The bench, comprising Justice Ahmed Sohel and Justice Fatema Anwar, declined to hear the petition, citing a heavy backlog of pending cases, Deputy Attorney General Khan Ziaur Rahman said.
He said the bench also returned the petition to the petitioner, Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Md Eunus Ali Akond.
The writ petition was filed on January 5 as a public interest litigation, challenging the EC's decisions to hold both the parliamentary election and referendum under the current interim government.
In the petition, he argued that there is no provision for an interim government in the constitution or the Representation of the People Order (RPO), and therefore elections and a referendum cannot legally be held under such an arrangement.
He sought a stay on the election and referendum schedules issued by EC on December 11 last year, which set February 12 as the polling date.
The petitioner also prayed to the High Court to issue directives for holding the national election under a caretaker government instead.
