When the judiciary is in a shaky position the law minister Anisul Huq disclosed plans for recruiting more magistrates for managing heavy accumulation of court cases.
The issue is not shortage of magistrates; the issue is using court cases for politics. The government is also not interested in early disposal of politically manipulated cases. The whole system of justice suffers from trepidation even to apply the law when the law must be applied. The fight in such cases is over granting bail. Last year, the Justice Audit Bangladesh after conducting audit in all 64 districts said only 13 percent people of Bangladesh prefer going to courts to get justice, and the rest, despite having faith in the judiciary, would rather have community leaders solve their issues. It further said the country’s courts have a backlog of 34 lakh cases and the situation could have been “different” if everyone went to the courts with their issues.
The number of cases pending with chief judicial magistrates’ courts increased 14 percent between 2016 and 2017. During the same period, the pending cases rose 16 and nine percent at the sessions’ judges’ courts and the high court division. The audit projected that, if the growth of pending cases continued at this pace, by 2022, chief judicial magistrates’ courts, sessions’ judges’ courts and the high court division would have 72, 82, and 89 percent of the cases before it pending.
It is easy to blame the courts for the backlog of cases ignoring the truth that the government enjoys all the freedom to do politics through court cases. Our fear is that more than sixty percent of the criminal cases are government desired cases to terrorise political opposition.
The government itself is not anxious to get the cases heard. In a report published in the press yesterday exposed the prosecution’s failure to produce witnesses for 21 years to make the case heard. The inordinate delay in hearing of the bail petition drew the attention of their Lordships Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafijur Rahman of the High Court Division.
The justice system like any other area of the government is affected by disorder and uncertainty of leadership.
The magistrates and others of the lower judiciary are insecure before the pressure of the government. The law ministry’s interference is very open and cannot be unknown to the Supreme Court responsible for superintendence over the lower court judges. The main headache of the judges is how to deal with bail matters when the government is adamantly against it.
However difficult the situation is, it is to be recognised that the Supreme Court still is in a position of considerable power for its unique position. But those who want to do justice are overstressed.
If the judiciary cannot function independently and the government is unrestrained about burdening an opponent with 30 to 40 cases how more magistrates will solve the problem is not understandable at all. Unless the government is desiring to fill the lower judiciary with more political magistrates.
The Supreme Court is the highest constitutional body for protecting human rights has to fight for its leadership. The government must be openly discouraged to use court cases for politics.
