Staff Reporter :
Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Saturday said that the judiciary can be criticised if and when occasion demands like any other public institution. But if the criticism is illegitimate and irresponsible, it may leave to immeasurable harm to the judiciary, he added.
He was addressing inaugural session of a workshop on “Digitalisation of Bangladesh Judiciary”, jointly organised by the Bangladesh Supreme Court and the UNDP at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Law Minister Anisul Huq, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak, UN Resident Coordinator Robert Waat Kinsh and UNDP Resident Representative Robert Watkins, spoke among others, in the function. Supreme Court’s Registrar General Syed Aminul Islam delivered the welcome speech.
The Chief Justice said that the country should be governed by the rule of law and every decision must be made under the rule of law.
About digitalisation in the judiciary, he said that it is high time to turn the judiciary ICT-friendly with small amount of fund, which would help expedite the disposal of cases. The citizens do have high esteems for the judiciary of the country despite various shortcomings, he added.
He hoped that with continuous cooperation and efforts from bar, bench, governments and all other stakeholders, they will soon be able to remove the deficiencies that have crept into the system over a period of time and deliver speedy and affordable justice.
He said, various facilities, including Wifi, video conference between the Supreme Court and the district court, record digitalisation, human resource management, accounting software, e-library, inventory system, data centre, and bio-metric attendance system will be ensured at all courts in a bid to digitalise the judicial system.
Mentioning that the science and modern technology have a close impact on the pattern of human behaviour and lifestyle that has given rise to the disputes and offences of various natures, the Chief Justice said that in this era of globalisation and rapid technological developments, judiciary cannot lag behind and has to be fully prepared to meet the challenges of the age.
He said that when case backlog is high, case flows are unpredictable and cases take inordinately long to reach their logical ends, it is the poor, marginal and vulnerable sections of the society that suffer the most. “We, therefore, need to take urgent and concerted steps towards reducing case backlogs, improving administration of our judicial systems and providing better access to our delivery systems to ensure that the fruits of development reach the last person standing,” the Chief Justice added.
AMA Muhith pointed out the necessity of balance of power between the government and the Supreme Court. The historic verdict of Masdar Hossain case, which led the separation of judiciary from the executive, should be reviewed, the Minister remarked.
Anisul Huq supported all the initiatives taken by the Chief Justice to improve the judicial system.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that Bangladesh cannot be turned digital dropping the country’s judiciary out of digitalisation.
