| Native Name Lang: | bn |
| Office: | Justice of the High Court Division of Bangladesh |
| Nationality: | Bangladeshi |
| Profession: | Judge |
Md. Ashraful Kamal is a Justice of the High Court Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court.[1] [2]
Kamal was born on 3 November 1964.[3] He did his bachelor's degree in law and masters in commerce from the University of Dhaka.
Kamal started his legal practice on 30 April 1994. He became a lawyer of the High Court Division on 26 September 1996.
Kamal became a lawyer of the Bangladesh Supreme Court on 24 August 2010. He was appointed an additional judge of the High Court Division on 12 December.
On 10 December 2012, Kamal was made a permanent Judge of the High Court Division.
Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Kamal scrapped a provision of the Anti Corruption Commission act which curtailed the independence of the commissioners in 2015.[4] He and Justice Chowdhury issued a split verdict challenging the parliamentary membership of Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya who had been convicted in a corruption case.[5] Chowdhury asked Maya for an explanation while Kamal rejected the petition.
In March 2016, Kamal, Justice Naima Haider, and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque rejected a petition that challenged the making of Islam the state religion of Bangladesh in 1988.[6]
Kamal and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury ordered the government of Bangladesh to collect taxes from Google.[7] In October 2018, Kamal gave a split verdict with Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury on a petition challenging the "fictitious" case filed by the Government of Bangladesh against politicians of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.[8] Chowdhury sought an explanation from the government why it should not be declared illegal while Kamal said the cases could not be called fictitious and should be properly investigated.
In February 2019, Kamal and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury issued a 17-point verdict on protecting rivers of Bangladesh such as preventing those involved in illegal occupation of river bank from receiving loans or standing for elections.[9] Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Kamal in a verdict recognized Turag river as a living entity and ordered the eviction of encroachers.[10] [11] The verdict scrapped a lease by A. K. Azad of Ha-Meem Group on the banks of the river by Gazipur administration. Kamal and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury asked the government to take action to prevent unnecessary C-sections in June 2019.[12]
In June 2023, Kamal upheld the five-year jail sentence of Md Bazlur Rashid, Deputy Inspector General of Prison, 31.4 million BDT corruption case.[13]
In July 2024, Justice Kamal delivered a verdict in a smuggling case and recommended the following to the National Parliament:Declaration of BGB property: The area up to 10 miles inside Bangladesh from the border should be declared as the property of the BGB.
Compensation: Private property owners affected by this declaration should be compensated by assessing the loss and allocating government property of equal value in their name.
Maintaining visibility: The land up to 8km from the borderline should be kept completely empty and flat, ensuring that every inch of this land is clearly visible from a distance of 8km. This woulld be 22% of the country's land area.
BGB activity zone: The area between 8-10 km from the border should be reserved for all activities of BGB, including training. [14]