Gulam Rabbani :
After a long gap all the courts across the country including the Appellate and High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court have started their regular operation again from Sunday which has brought a relief to the justice-seeking people and the lawyers.
Both the divisions of the higher judiciary will function through only virtual process, while the subordinate courts will act in both processes, physically and virtually.
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on June 17 constituted 53 High Court Division benches to conduct cases through only virtual process since June 20, said a notification issued on the Supreme Court website.
Another notification issued on June 19 by the Supreme Court administration said that all the subordinate civil and criminal courts and tribunals will conduct regular judicial proceedings in physical presence since June 20.
However, if the local administration of any district or metropolitan city of the country imposes restrictions on the overall movements of the people to prevent the infection of the coronavirus then the civil and criminal courts and tribunals of that particular district or metropolitan city can hold hearing on bail petitions and other urgent applications without the physical appearance of the parties, the notification also read.
Advocate Abdul Baten, President of the Dhaka Bar Association, said it’s a great pleasure for the justice-seeking people as well as the lawyers that all the courts have started functioning.
Though the lawyers of the Supreme Court and lower courts are happy with the decision of opening the regular activities of the courts they are little worried as the hearing of the anticipatory bail petitions is stopped yet.
Barrister Shanjid Siddique, a Supreme Court lawyer, said, “The regular proceedings of the High Court and subordinate courts have commenced today (Sunday) after two months since the inception of lockdown from 8th March. But the proceedings in the High Court will continue to be conducted through video conferencing. The litigants can now have recourse to justice as usual except for seeking anticipatory bail in the High Court. It is pertinent to state that many people are implicated in frivolous criminal cases solely for harassment and hence they should be able to obtain legal protection by obtaining pre-arrest bail. I request the Chief Justice to confer jurisdiction upon High Court benches to hear anticipatory bail applications.”
All the courts in the country were declared closed for the first time in March last year due to the coronavirus outbreak. After that, the activities of the judiciary were completely stopped for about two months.
On the backdrop of demand of the justice seeking people and the lawyers finally a law was enacted to launch the judicial activities through virtual process. After enacting the law the first virtual court was introduced in the Supreme Court on May 10 that year.
Due to the awfulness of the coronavirus situation, only a few virtual courts were functional initially. Later some physical courts were also opened considering the interest of the lawyers following the health guidelines.
The court proceedings have been conducting in both the processes for the last few months. But the new wave of the coronavirus has changed the situation again. The authorities have to declare running the court proceedings on a limited scale in the lower and higher courts only on virtual process.
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on April 11 decided to run the court functions on a limited scale in the new lockdown period. The Chief Justice formed one Appellate Division bench and some other High Court division benches to hear the urgent cases. Later the benches were increased, but those didn’t meet the demands of the lawyers.
Recently the lawyers of the Supreme Court and subordinate courts were constantly appealing to open the regular court activities maintaining the health guidelines.
