Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has reinstated the political registration of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, overturning a 2013 High Court ruling that had barred the country’s largest religious party from participating in elections for over a decade.
The ruling, issued on Sunday by a four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, directed the Election Commission to immediately restore Jamaat’s registration and resolve all outstanding matters, including the allocation of its election symbol.
Jamaat had lost its legal status under the premiership of Sheikh Hasina, who was removed from power following mass protests in August 2024 and subsequently went into exile in India. In her final months in office, Hasina also imposed an executive ban on the party in August 2023.
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The transitional government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, which assumed office after Hasina’s ouster, had revoked that executive order, setting the stage for Sunday’s legal reversal.
“With the verdict, a multiparty democracy and inclusive election has been acknowledged,” said Jamaat’s lawyer, Mohammad Shishir Manir, speaking outside the court. He added that the 2013 decision had been politically motivated and that the new ruling reflected judicial fairness.
The verdict follows the Supreme Court’s May 27 decision to overturn the conviction of senior Jamaat leader A.T.M. Azharul Islam, who had been sentenced to death in 2014 for alleged war crimes during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence. Islam was released on May 28 after spending over a decade in prison.
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Jamaat-e-Islami had supported Pakistan during the 1971 war, a stance that remains controversial in Bangladesh. The party was long opposed by the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina and her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s founding leader.
The ruling opens the way for Jamaat to contest in the upcoming 13th parliamentary elections, expected later this year.
In a broader shift, the Awami League itself was banned by the interim government in May pending trial over its alleged role in suppressing last year’s anti-quota protests that led to Hasina’s removal.
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