The High Court on Sunday issued a rule questioning the government’s failure to implement a mandatory registration and regulatory system for domestic workers as required under the Domestic Servants Registration Ordinance, 1961.
The bench of Justice Razik-Al-Jalil and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury issued the rule following a preliminary hearing on a writ petition.
The court asked why the authorities' inaction should not be declared illegal and sought an explanation as to why directives should not be issued to enforce the system in line with the petition's recommendations.
The Law Secretary, Labour and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary, and the Director General of the Department of Labour have been ordered to respond to the rule within four weeks.
Advocate Tanzim Al Islam, alongside Advocate Khadijatul Kobra and Advocate Rowshan Ara, represented the petitioner.
The legal move was initiated by Advocate Khadijatul Kobra, who filed the writ on January 13 seeking mandatory registration for all domestic workers nationwide, including in the capital.
She informed reporters that the petition was prompted by a double murder in Mohammadpur on December 5 last year, where a mother and daughter were allegedly killed by a domestic worker employed at their residence.
Prior to the writ, a legal notice had been served to the authorities citing media reports of the incident and requesting the enforcement of the 1961 ordinance. "As no action was taken, the writ petition was filed on January 31," she said.
Under the 1961 ordinance, mandatory registration is currently limited to specific police stations in Dhaka, including Kotwali, Sutrapur, Lalbagh, Ramna, and Tejgaon.
However, Kobra noted that the law empowers the government to extend these provisions to other areas through an official gazette notification.
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