After hearing the petition yesterday, a division bench of the High Court (HC) fixed today for ruling on the matter.

Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh uses scales as its election symbol.

The petitioners challenged the operation of rule 9 (1) of the Conduct of Election Rules 1972 by which the Election Commission (EC) had included scales as one of the election symbols.

Five lawyers of the SC-- Moksadul Islam, SM Fazlul Hoque, Asaduzzaman Siddique, Shamsul Alam and Mustafa Zaman Islam-- filed the petition as public interest litigation (PIL). Secretaries of the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry and of the EC have been made respondents in the case.

At preliminary hearing, Manzil Murshid, counsel for the petitioners, argued that scales (daripalla) have been used as the monogram of the SC since the establishment of East Bengal High Court in 1947.

He said they are being used in the court's official pad, in chairs of the judges, and in calendar and other publications. "They are also used in the flag of a judge's car," he added.

He also submitted that scales are considered as the barometer of justice. So, the EC cannot assign them as an election symbol of a political party.

Since the establishment of the High Court, the people of the country take scales as a symbol of justice, he said.

So, he noted, the use of scales as a symbol by others could lead to confusion among the people, and undermine the status of the apex court.

"No one should be allowed to create confusion among the people by using scales as a symbol as they represent justice," the lawyer told the court.

The inclusion of scales as a symbol in the gazette for symbol allocation by the EC is "mala fide, illegal and without lawful authority as well as liable to be declared void," he said.