The High Court today directed the government authorities concerned not to show former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque arrested or harass him unless he is named as an accused in a specific case.

The court also issued a rule asking the authorities to explain why the March 30 order of the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate, which allowed the government to show Khairul arrested in two cases, should not be declared illegal.

The HC bench of Justice Razik-Al-Jalil and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury issued the order and rule following a writ petition filed by Advocate Md Asik Ul Haque, Khairul Haque's son, challenging the order of the chief metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka.

Former chief justice Khairul has been shown arrested in the cases filed with Jatrabari Police Station on August 26, 2024 and with Adabor Police Station on August 22, 2024 in illegal, arbitrary and malafide (in bad faith) manner in order to harass, humiliate and persecute him, he said in the petition.

Senior lawyer Md Motaher Hossain Sazu appeared for the petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Jamila Momtaz represented the state during today’s proceedings.

Khairul was arrested from his Dhanmondi home in Dhaka on July 24, 2025, nearly a year after the fall of the Awami League government.

He was later shown arrested in multiple cases, including several filed over killings during the July movement, and has remained in jail since then.