Gulam Rabbani :
The number of judges in the higher and lower courts has been increasing in the context of expeditious disposal of cases. It’s a good initiative. Yet in this process, the trial proceedings of the cases may not be disposed of quickly.
It is observed that in many cases, qualified people are not hired as judges. People belonging to the different political ideology are given priority. As a result, they gossip in the court instead of holding hearing on the law point of the cases.
Apart from this, the state lawyers also give support in these points, because, they think they are government people and they will win the case easily. However, we don’t think like that.
The judges want to do fair trial. This is not also true that there is no government pressure. But speedy disposal of the cases is not possible by increasing the number of judges. Qualified people need to be appointed as judges.
It cannot be a job of the judiciary to appoint unemployed and incompetent people as judges and to provide them better homes, cars and high standard life.
If the people don’t have any confidence in the judiciary, it is same whether there would be a judiciary or not. Only a competent and talent judge can complete the trial proceedings expeditiously, because they know the law and study on it.
There are many developed countries in the world where the judges give a time frame to the lawyers for finishing their cases within that period. The court sets
the time according to the merits of the cases.
In our country, court time is wasted unnecessarily. Many lawyers do not study cases well. Lawyers have to be given a time frame to complete their cases in a particular period. Then it may happen that the lawyers will come to the court with a good preparation. The court is not a place to give speeches, rather a place to discuss law.
Another problem of our judiciary is that the police practise politics with filing lawsuits. The police arbitrarily file cases on different contexts. Due to the filing of the cases by the police, practice of politics is continuing with the filing of the cases. As a result, the number of cases is increasing day by day which is a big burden for the judiciary.
The number of the total cases pending with the courts across the country including the Supreme Court was 35,98,263 till June in 2019. The number has increased definitely in last three years, however, the exact number was not found as the counting was stopped for a long time due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
To handle the cases the judiciary has recruited judges for the High Court division and the subordinate courts different times. Although a Judicial Service Commission appoints judges in the lower courts through a competitive examination, the process has always been under question as there is no specific policy to appoint judges in the higher judiciary.
However, the appointment of judges at different times has been done without formulating any policy, and more judges will be appointed in the High Court division very soon, sources said.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said, “In the case of appointment of judges, especially in the case of appointing judges in the higher judiciary, priority should be given to those who are qualified. Those who are practising as lawyers and those who have a good educational background should be given preference. And in the case of elevation from lower court to higher court, the judicial career of the judges must be taken into consideration.”
To reduce the pressure of the large number of cases, the lawyer has suggested for appointing adequate judges, arranging sufficient infrastructures and reducing the annual leave of the judges.
Another Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court Manzill Murshid said, “The rule of law is needed to bring a discipline in the judiciary, including reducing the huge case backlog. If everyone, including the administration, follows the law, the number of cases will be automatically reduced by 70 percent. And to handle the remaining 30 percent of the cases we need to appoint efficient and adequate judges, sufficient infrastructures and other supporting.”
“In many countries there is a practice that the losing party bears the total cost of the winning side of a case and they also have to pay an amount as the court fee. As a result, a party thinks again and again before filing a case. This practice is not seen in our country. As a result, cases are being filed randomly in our country,” also said the lawyer.
