CEC, MP face contempt charge

Now that the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court apparently has had enough of this continued hostility and issued a suo moto contempt rule against the CEC as well as a BNP lawmaker, the issue of the deference the CEC owes to the nation's highest court can finally be dealt with once and for all.

The suo moto rule is in fact merely the latest turn in an increasingly bizarre struggle between the CEC and the Court, during the course of which the CEC has seen fit to flout and countermand the Court's orders.

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The issue began with the High Court verdict on the preparation of the voters' list. The CEC paid no heed whatsoever to it. He filed a petition for leave to appeal, which is his right, but continued with the preparation of the voters' list in the meantime without waiting to see how the Appellate Division dealt with his appeal, which was certainly a telling action.

It is in this leave to appeal application that the CEC's counsel had asked for a full bench to hear the application and also appended a letter from the BNP MP which seemed to suggest no confidence in the four-person bench before which his appeal was to be heard.

The CEC and the MP will have the chance to respond and we hope that the matter can be resolved with minimum of fuss.

But the important thing is that the CEC understand that he is subject to the Court, and that the principle of the supremacy of the laws and the courts is upheld. It is important that we establish and reiterate that we are a nation of laws and that even government or statutory functionaries must comply with the rulings and verdicts of the Court.