Dhaka, Apr 5 – The BD government has planned to set up 313 more courts across the country and appoint 346 judicial magistrates, aiming to reduce the plight of justice-seekers and ease the pressure of mounting cases, official sources said.
They said a process is underway to set up seven cyber tribunals, 122 additional district and session judges courts, 159 joint district judges courts, 19 environment courts, and six environment appeal courts.
According to an official document, the government has also decided to appoint 346 judicial magistrates or senior judicial magistrates or metropolitan magistrates to this end.
The Public Administration Minister and the Finance Minister were learned to have given their consent to set up seven cyber tribunals while the Public Administration Ministry has given its approval to create chief metropolitan magistrate courts in Gazipur and Rangpur.
The official document, obtained by UNB, shows that the crisis of courtrooms is one of the main obstacles to quick disposal of cases. “The government is working to streamline the trial process by increasing courtrooms and ensuring the best use of working hours,” it reads.
In this connection, the government is implementing a project for the vertical expansion of district judges’ courts in 28 districts with modern facilities and constructing chief judicial magistrate court buildings in 42 districts, the document says.
The construction on 24 chief judicial magistrate court buildings has already been completed where judicial works are going on. The construction works on the rest of the districts are going on.
The process to prepare Development Project Proposals (DPPs) in the rest of the 36 district judge courts and 22 chief judicial magistrate court buildings are also in progress.
The government has approved another project of constructing a 12-storey building with modern facilities on the High Court compound.
Besides, a monitoring cell is working to dispose of the old cases on priority basis under the leadership of a solicitor in addition to forming the case management committee in every district.
According to the official document, national and district-level ‘Justice Coordination Committees’ have been formed to ensure effective coordination for the quick disposal of cases in courts.
For resolving the transport problem of additional district and session judges, who usually deal with murder, dacoities, rape and other serious cases, the government has approved a project to procure 128 vehicles.
The government has taken another initiative for the training of the judges of lower courts for speedy trial and disposing of cases, the document further says.
It says a process to send 540 judges to Western Sydney University of Australia has started, while 253 judges have already received the training.
Besides, some 315 judges received training at the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal, India, while 30 in Japan, 20 judges in China and 14 and prosecutors in the USA.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Administration Training Institute provided training to 2,838 judges, 135 GP/PP and 193 court staff from 2014 to 2018. Besides, 59 judges have received training on e-procurement. “In phases, more judges will be given higher training both at home and abroad,” the document says.
The number of pending cases with the country’s lower courts till December 31, 2018, is 35,69,750 while 14,29,861 is civil cases and 20,48,067 is criminal cases. The number of pending cases with the higher courts is 5,37,094.
