The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed a High Court (HC) order to allot a stall to Adarsha Prakashani at the Ekushey Book Fair on the condition that it does not sell or exhibit three specific books.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Faiz Siddiqui, passed the order on Wednesday.

The apex court came up with the stay order after hearing an appeal filed by Bangla Academy against the HC order.

Barrister Aneek R Haque appeared for the writ in the court. Advocate Mintu Kumar Mondal appeared on behalf of Bangla Academy.

Bangla Academy on Monday filed a petition seeking a stay on High Court order.

Earlier, a writ was filed in the High Court challenging the validity of the Bangla Academy's decision not to allocate the publishing house a stall at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2023.

The publisher of Adarsha Prakashani, Md Mahabubur Rahman, filed the writ petition on February 2.

In the writ petition, a request was made to issue a rule seeking to know why not allocating a stall to Adarsha Prakashani should not be declared illegal. 

At the same time, instructions were sought to allot stalls to the publication at the earliest.

The writ stated that the authorities did not allow the publishing house to participate in the fair over a book that is not banned or blacklisted. So, the decision has no validity as per the Bangla Academy Act 2013. It is also against freedom of speech.

In the writ, four people, including the director general and president of the Bangla Academy, were made respondents. 

The High Court bench held a hearing on the writ petition last Tuesday and fixed Wednesday for passing an order in this regard.

On February 7, the court asked Adarsha to submit a copy of the three books which are under objection by the Bangla Academy authorities. It also asked to give a bond on the condition of not selling and exhibiting the three books. 

Later on February 8, the High Court ordered the authorities concerned to allot a stall to Adarsha at the Ekushey Book Fair on the condition that it does not sell or exhibit three specific books.

On January 12, Bangla Academy published the list of publishing houses that were given stalls at the fair. But Adarsha Prakashani did not get a stall and later learned about the objections toward a book, titled Bangalir Mediocrityr Sondhane (In Search of Bengalis' Mediocrity). It is written by Faham Abdus Salam, son-in-law of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Adarsha publisher Mahabubur applied again on January 24, assuring the authorities that the “controversial” book would not be in the stall. But later on January 26, the Bangla Academy informed him that Adarsha was not getting a stall this time. 

According to sources, the Bangla Academy authorities also raised objections to two other books – one by Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb and the other by Zia Hassan.