Gulam Rabbani :
The senior jurists opined that the new lockdown imposed following the new wave of the novel coronavirus might increase the case backlog in the courts.
So the authorities of the judiciary should take some special initiatives to keep the trial proceedings normal in the courts even in the lockdown period, they added.
They suggested for operating required number of courts across the country including the Appellate Division and High Court Division of the Supreme Court (SC) and reducing vacation period of the courts’ to tackle the situation.
A huge backlog of around 3.7 million cases are pending with the courts across the country, including the Appellate Division and High Court Division of the SC, causing immeasurable sufferings to the litigants.
Although the number of judges and the rate of disposal of cases are increasing, the backlog is growing higher, since the number of filing of cases is increasing day by day due to growth of population, SC and the law ministry sources said.
All the courts in the country were declared shut 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.
In the face of the demands for 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 became 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 slap of the coronavirus has changed the situation again. In the new situation the authorities have declared to run 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 four High Court division benches to hear the urgent cases.
Lower courts will also function through virtual system by this time to hear only bail petitions and urgent cases, according to the notifications issued in this regard.
But the lawyers are not happy with the decision. Lawyers of the Supreme Court and lower courts have been demanding greater courts with more jurisdictions in the lockdown period.
A group of Supreme Court lawyer has already submitted a memorandum to the Chief Justice demanding the same. Besides, the leaders of the district bar associations of the Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet have also sent letters to the Chief Justice demanding to run the lower courts through regular activities in the lockdown period.
Advocate Manzill Murshid, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, said, “Case backlog is a long pending problem in our judiciary. It does not seem that the Supreme Court alone will be able to reduce the backlog. We have to take a long term plan to tackle the problem. The number of courts should be increased. Good governance must be established.”
Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan, another senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, said “Case backlog is an as usual crisis of the judiciary. But a new pressure will be created upon the courts for disposing of cases due to this unexpected lockdown.”
“No one knows when this crisis will be resolved. This situation cannot continue for indefinite time. So the authorities should take initiatives to run more courts through virtual process so that the justice seeking people can get the solution,” added the lawyer.
