Contract and judicial review in Bangladesh: From Sharping to present

Abstract

The government is the biggest procurer in Bangladesh. It continues to enter into
numerous contracts daily. When such contracts are entered into by the government in
performance of their statutory duty as sovereign, they are actions of public nature and
amenable to constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh under
judicial review. In other words, a citizen, who is a party to these special kinds of
contracts are able to claim enforcement of these contracts in constitutional courts in
addition to being enforced by civil courts only. In this article, the practice of these
contracts in Bangladesh are looked into. We have tried to cover the recent case laws on
the subject from the first case of it’s kind. The rationales adopted by the courts are self
explanatory and does not require interpretation. We have endeavored to put up a map of
development on this area of law. There is no other specific research question in this
article other than the mapping of the progress of the availability of judicial review in
government related contracts. While the courts recognize all the other ingredients of the
law of contracts to be present in these special contracts, the extraordinary remedy of
judicial review and its availability in certain cases make all the difference.