The High Court was moved on Thursday to impose an interim embargo on enforcing shutdown during the ongoing Higher Secondary School Certificate examinations.
The bench of justices AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Jahangir Hossain heard a writ petition and will hold further hearing on Sunday.
Enforcing shutdowns is a democratic right but sitting examinations is the equally the right of the students, the petitioner, Mohammad Yunus Ali Akhand, told the news agency after moving the court at noon.
He said depriving the students of their rights to take the key examinations would amount to a ‘violation of their basic rights’.
The BNP enforced countrywide general strike for three consecutive days since Sunday after one of its organising secretaries, M Elias Ali, went missing on the early hours of April 18.
The leaders of Sylhet unit also enforced a shutdown in the four districts of the division last Thursday over the same issue.
The education ministry postponed the examinations across the country on those days due to the lockdown.
The HSC and equivalent examinations began across the country on April 1 and are scheduled to run through to June 6.
A number of leaders of the newly formed 18-Party Alliance on Wednesday hinted that BNP and its allies may go for a nonstop shutdown from Sunday if Ilias Ali was not ‘returned’ by Saturday.
The government has been criticising the opposition for enforcing the general strike at a time when the examinations were taking place.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, last Tuesday asked the opposition to withdraw the strike considering the sufferings it caused to the students.