Validities of bails, injunctions extended
Chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain issued an administrative order Saturday extending the validities of ad-interim bails and the time given by superiors courts to the accused to surrender in the lower courts as well as the timeline of injunctions and the status quos in civil cases.
The chief justice gave three directives to the superior and the lower courts after holding an emergency meeting with the other judges of the Appellate Division and law minister Anisul Huq at his official residence at about 11,30 am, Supreme Court registrar’s spokesman Mohammad Saifur Rahman told New Age.
‘We discussed the problems, the litigants and the judges are facing due to the long public holidays and all the decisions were taken following the prime minister’s directives to prevent the spread of corona virus infection,’ the law minister told New Age.
The validity of the bails, the injunctions and the status quos were extended by two weeks after the Supreme Court would resume on April 12, said a circular issued by Supreme Court registrar general Md Ali Akbar.
The circular also said that more than one magistrate from chief metropolitan magistrate’s courts and the chief judicial magistrates were asked to hear emergency matters.
Litigants can also appeal to the High Court against orders or verdicts of the lower courts despite the stipulations of the Special Laws on the day the Supreme Court reopens, according to the circular.
The appeals can be filed without submitting certified copies of orders or verdicts but litigants must submit the certified copies to the appellate courts before they start hearings, the circular said.
The circular said that the decisions were taken treating corona virus infection as a ‘crisis’.
On March 23, Supreme Court Bar Association president AM Amin Uddin raised the issues at a meeting with the chief justice.
The jails are over-crowded with inmates as no court granted bails and the new inmates were quarantined for 14 days during the public holidays due to the corona virus infection scare.
On April 1, the jail authorities recommended to the government to free at least 4,500 inmates, as 1,450 of them had served 20 years and 3,000 others were jailed for minor offences.
Additional inspector general of prisons colonel Md Abrar Hossain told New Age that the jail authorities had recommended to the law ministry to free 3,001 under-trial inmates on bails as they had been detained in various jails for two months to two years on bail-able offences.
Asked for comment, the law minister, however, said that they were looking into the recommendations.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
