Gulam Rabbani :
Around six thousand cases have been pending for 22 years or more than that in the lower courts across the country, said a statistics of the Supreme Court. The apex court authorities have instructed to complete the trial process of those cases by December 1 this year on a priority basis.
The eight monitoring teams headed by eight High Court division judges formed to monitor the trial proceedings of the subordinate courts across the country recently sought a statistics of the cases pending since 2000 or before that time from the subordinate courts. In response to that query the subordinate courts send update information of the cases filed in the year of 2000 or before it.
A letter send to the subordinate courts said, “It is a legitimate expectation of the justice-seeking people that a case will dispose of in time. The image of the judiciary is getting tarnished as the case is pending for more than 22 years. This is not expected in any way.”
“In this situation the cases filed in the year of 2000 and before it should be disposed of as soon as possible on the basis of highest priority, except for the cases stayed by the order of the High Court. So it is directed to complete the trial process of those cases by December 1 this year on a priority basis.”
At the same time, the subordinate court authorities have been instructed to send the details of the cases to the High Court after disposing of those by December 1.
According to the attached list of the letter, a total of 5861 cases have been pending since the year of 2000 or earlier in the lower courts across the country. The highest number of old cases is in Dhaka district. The number of pending cases filed in the district before 2000 is 615.
Sources said, till September 30, 2021, the total number of cases in the lower courts has increased to about 37 lakh. Apart from this more than five lakh cases pending in the Supreme Court. In other words, the total number of pending cases in the country (higher and lower judiciary) is about 42 lakh. Although the number of judges is increasing day by day, the case backlog is not decreasing.
Justice Hasan Foez Siddique on January 2, 2022, the first working day after taking the charge as the Chief Justice, said, a monitoring cell headed by a judge of the High Court Division will be formed for each of the eight divisions of the country in order to resolve case backlog in all lower courts and bring transparency in the judicial process.
Progress reports will be taken from each of them every month, also said the newly appointed Chief Justice adding that older cases will be supervised and monitored with utmost importance for early disposing of them.
He, 25 days after taking the office, gave the responsibility of the eight divisions to the eight judges of the High Court division on January 27.
Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam was given charge to monitor the proceedings of the subordinate courts of Dhaka division, Justice Md Jahangir Hossain was for the courts of Khulna division, Justice Zafar Ahmed was for the courts of Barishal division and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah was for the courts of Chattogram division.
Justice S M Kuddus Zaman was appointed to monitor the court proceedings of Sylhet division, Justice Shahed Nuruddin was for the courts of Rangpur division, Justice Md Zakir Hossain was for the courts of Mymensingh division and Justice Md Akhtaruzzaman was for the courts of Rajshahi division.
Eight judicial officers have also been appointed for eight divisions to provide the secretarial assistance to the High Court judges.
It is learnt that after the formation of the monitoring committee, the speed of monitoring the trial proceedings has get momentum. The heads of the monitoring committees are visiting the court proceedings regularly.
They are holding view exchange meeting with the lower court jduges. Apart from this, various instructions have been issued in separate circulars to reduce the suffering of the litigants by bringing speed in the proceedings.
