The High Court yesterday stayed for three months the government order closing Bangla daily Amar Desh.
It also stayed for the same period another order of the government refusing to make the daily's acting editor Mahmudur Rahman the publisher of the newspaper.
The court also issued a rule upon the government to explain within four weeks as to why the orders should not be declared illegal.
A bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif came up with the order following a writ petition filed by acting chairman of the paper Anwar-un-Nabi.
The government yesterday filed a petition with the Supreme Court to stay the HC order.
Amar Desh was closed on June 1 on the ground that there is no publisher for the daily.
Petitioner's counsel barrister Abdur Razzaq yesterday told The Daily Star that there is no bar to the daily's publication following the HC order.
However, Additional Attorney General MK Rahman said Amar Desh cannot be published following the order since it has no authorised publisher.
The matter regarding its publication is under trial upon the filing of the petition with the SC, he added.
He also said the hearing on the stay petition might be held next week at the Chamber Judge's Court.
Meanwhile, the HC yesterday ordered the government not to torture Mahmudur Rahman mentally or physically after taking him on remand.
An HC bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice Soumendra Sarker passed the order following three separate petitions filed by Mahmudur challenging his remand orders.
Mahmudur's lawyer barrister Nasiruddin Asim told The Daily Star that his client was recently on remand for total 11 days in three separate cases against him.