Chief Justice asks judges to speed up disposal of cases

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on Saturday asked judges to restrict inflow of cases before they are filed to reduce the backlog of lawsuits.
He also requested judges to expedite disposal of cases to reduce the number of pending lawsuits. 
The chief justice made the call at the ‘Sharing Event of National Justice Audit Bangladesh’s Findings’ with Supreme Court judges. 
The Supreme Court Judicial Reform Committee and the German Development Cooperation jointly organized the event at the Supreme Court auditorium.
The Chief Justice said that the country’ prisons had been severely overcrowded mainly with under-trial prisoners. 
He said that the shortage of judges and infrastructure might be the reasons for the backlog of cases piling up.
He described management of cases was the key factor in tackling the issue. 
He said that the alternative dispute resolution could also be used to reduce the backlog of cases. 
He requested the government to implement the existing legal framework to allow alternative dispute resolution to boost litigants’ trust on justice system.
The chief justice said that he would soon sit with his colleagues to resolve the pending cases.
Delays in justice delivery that tantamount to denial of justice is causing untold sufferings to justice seekers, he said.
Over 30 lakh cases are pending with the lower courts and about five lakh with the Supreme Court, according to Supreme Court spokesman Mohammad Saifur Rahman.
Prison officials told New Age that 89,464 inmates were in the custody 68 jails.
The number of inmates increased to 95,321 before the last general election.
Justice Audit Bangladesh’s international consultant Eric Cadora in his key note paper said, 68 per cent people still trusted the formal justice system of Bangladesh but 87 per cent was in favour of the community resolving their disputes and only 13 per cent go to the formal justice system to seek redress.
He said that the number of cases grew in chief judicial magistrates’ courts to 14 per cent in one year from 2016 to 2017.
Similarly, the number of cases in the Sessions’ Judge Courts swelled by 16 per cent from 2016 to 2017 and in the High Court Division by nine per cent during the same period, he said.
At the given growth rate, he said, the number of cases in the CJMs 
courts would swell by 72 per cent, by 80 per cent in the Session’s Courts and by 90 per cent in the High Court Division by 2022, said Eric.
He described inter-institutional coordination, appropriate allocation of budget and other resources as important things to consider to make Bangladesh’s justice system more dynamic and pro-people. 
He said that only per cent of the national budget was allocated to the Judiciary in fiscal 2016-17.
Chaired by Appellate Division’s senior most judge, Justice Muhammad Imman Ali, the discussants included German Chargé d’ Affaires Michael Schultheiss, DFID head in Bangladesh Judith Herbertson and GIZ Bangladesh’s head of Rule of Law Promita Sengupta. 
National Justice Audit is an initiative of the Law and Justice Division, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs supported by German Government.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net