The Appellate Division on Monday asked photographer Shahidul Alam to submit a regular petition to challenge the High Court’s rejection of his earlier appeal to strike down a case he faces under the ICT Act. The Apex court led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order during a hearing on the petition filed by Shahidul against the High Court’s order. The appeals court asked Shahidul, founder of Drik Gallery, to submit the petition within four weeks. READ: Shahidul Alam moves HC challenging legality of his case  On December 14,last year, the High Court bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Rajik Al Jalil rejected the writ filed by the photographer challenging the legality of the case and sought a stay on the trial proceedings of the case. After that the public prosecutor said there is no legal bar to precede the investigation in the case. On August 12 in 2018 the court directed to send Shahidul to jail over a case filed against him with Ramna Police Station for 'spreading propaganda' through Facebook during the student movement seeking safe roads.   READ: Finally, Shahidul Alam walks out of jail He was freed from jail on November 20, two days after the HC granted him bail. On March 14 in 2019 the HC stayed the investigation into the case for three months and issued a rule questioning the legality of the investigation in the case which the court rejected later on December 14.

The Committee to Protect Journalists named prominent Bangladeshi photo journalist Shahidul Alam and three others from Iran, Nigeria, and Russia for the 2020 International Press Freedom Awards.