Staff Reporter :
The Chief Justice (CJ), Surendra Kumar Sinha, on Saturday said that every institution of the State is busy with a competition to establish its supremacy over the others. Not only that, even main organs of the State are not free of this competition. But the Judiciary is exception.
“Those people who are closer to the power have been trended most to establish supremacy over others. But the Judiciary never contested in this competition and never will do. Rather, we always tried to check and balance among the organs and institutions of the state, he said while speaking as the chief guest in the inaugural session of the conference.
The two-day ‘National Judicial Conference 2016’ was held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
He added: “We will perform the duties as much as the Constitution gives on us. We hope that other organs and institutions of the State will also support the Judiciary in the same way.”
Senior Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah presided over the inaugural function. Former Chief Justice Mahmudul Amin Choudhury, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sherif, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Policy Adviser of ‘A-to-I’ Programme of the Prime Minister Office Aneer Chowdhury, Senior District Judge Golam Mortuza Majumder addressed the session.
Judges of the both division of the Supreme Court, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, Inspector General of Police A K M Shahidul Hoque, Judges from across the country attended the programme.
Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said the Supreme Court has scrapped the Caretaker Government system to keep the Judiciary neutral. “A democratically elected government runs the country for five years. If it cannot hold a neutral and fair election, it will be the political bankruptcy of the politicians,” the CJ said.
“When a former chief justice becomes the chief of the caretaker government, discussions about him take place on whether he was neutral or not. Therefore, the judgments given by the judge become questionable,” he said.
Considering this thing, the SC cancelled the Caretaker Government system and now the politicians will see whether they can hold the election in a fair and neutral manner, he said.
Citing several activities of the judiciary, the CJ said that judiciary has played an important role to ensure the rule of law in a democratic country.
Regarding the digitalization of the judiciary, the CJ said that there is no alternative but to develop the case management system under the digitalization system of the Judiciary.
The CJ also said that the backlogs of the cases were not reduced due to the lack of sufficient judicial officers. If the number of the judges would be raised in double, the backlog of cases would be reduced quickly, he noted.
Surendra Kumar Sinha, however, said that the existing judicial officers could not discharge their duties properly due to the lack of sufficient courtrooms as a total of 170 judges are now conducting judicial function after dividing the courtrooms as they have no separate courtrooms.
Former Chief Justice Mahmudul Amin Choudhury said that he remembered the people of the Judiciary though he had been left the organ 14 years ago. But he got upset when he remembered them. “Justice is not only to be done, but it must be seen to have been done. If it is forgotten the Judiciary does not have anything else,” he said.
He questioned, “What we are doing now, what happening now? If there any court pass a bail order, then the upper court stays this. Why this is happening? Getting bail is a right of an accused. He has constitutional rights. This right cannot be suspended by the demand of police or any other force.”
He said, “A judge should have courage. Otherwise, one should not have the choice to be a judge. If one has no courage, he should leave the job. So show your courage. You have the constitutional bindings to do justice. Law is blind but not a judge. So you have the right to see everything. You will pass an order after seeing all sides.”
Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah in his speech said that the Judiciary is the last hope ground of the people. So, quick disposal of cases is necessary to establish justice. Judges should be cent percent neutral to proceed with a case. Otherwise, wrong concept would grow among the people about the Judiciary.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that the government has taken initiative to fully digitalize the judiciary by 2021.
