‘Village Court’, the lowest tier of the country’s judicial process, needs to be effective and strengthened as it has a vital role to play in resolving the grassroots litigations.
Academics, legal practitioners and public representatives viewed the village court could be an effective tool of successful and logical disposal of the village level lawsuits if it can work neutrally and free from political and other influences.To this end, emphasis should be given to ensuring transparency and accountability of all the persons concerned.Golam Mostofa, chairman of Huzrippara Union Parishad under Paba Upazila of the district, said the number of cases in our village court has gradually been increasing as many people especially the repressed women are dependent on it to get justice. “We have disposed of around 200 cases out of 250 cognized ones in the last 2012-13 fiscal year and 75 other cases are in trial process at present,” he mentioned. He, however, said the village court is beset with manifold problems.In many cases, he said, the accused and the plaintiffs couldn’t be appeared before the court. The court order for providing compensation also couldn’t be executed properly. “We have to face illogical and unethical pressure from the influential sides in conducting the court,” he depicted. He said the UP chairmen and members need to be trained. There is need of appointing a legal expert and bench assistant to each of the village courts for the sake of making it strengthened and effective. Some other UP chairmen like Abul Kalam Azad of Haragram, Shahjahan Ali of Damkura, Nazrul Islam of Haripur and Mafidul Islam Bachhu of Harian also supported the demands.
Advocate Hamidul Haque, a senior legal practitioner of Rajshahi Bar, said the government should take immediate step to make the village courts time- fitting to meet the demands of the society.In the country, many people live in rural area and most of them are poor and illiterate and they aren’t aware about the modern judicial system. Moreover, the poor community people have no financial capacity to continue their litigations in cities and towns for long.So, he said if there is any suitable place for speedy trial of the village-level chaos many of the distressed people can protect them from manifold hassle and expenditures. As a result of the quick trial, prevalence and intensity of confusion and disorder can be checked to a greater extent, which will help maintaining a peaceful atmosphere in rural lives.Advocate Hamidul Haque mentioned that the elected chairmen and members are more or less biased politically or different other ways in the present social and political contexts. They conduct the village court. In this situation, getting fair justice is impossible, he added.On the contrary, he said the public representatives remained busy in multifarious works for public welfare and they conduct the court as an auxiliary work. For this reason, many of the cases are disposed of in arbitrary ways.Not only this, he defined that the court is a sacred place for providing justice to all irrespective of rich and poor. So, none either petitioner or respondent has right to dishonor it. Besides, the persons, who will conduct the court, should be aware about the related laws, regulations and ethics to conduct the court. “All the litigants are bound to carry out all directives and orders of the court,” he added.”We have enormous scope of establishing a neutral village court in each of the country’s UP complexes to meet the people’s demands,” he said adding the court can play a vital role in resolving the grassroots disputes impartially.There is no alternative to strengthen the village court. To that end, the existing village court law should be amended, by which a judicial magistrate can be appointed to the court. Many other village-level matters can be brought under the purview of the court. He mentioned that the existing anomalies and irregularities in the
marriage registration and birth registration process could be stopped through the village court.Prof Asma Siddiqua of Department of Law of Rajshahi University said the existing village court should be effective so that it can work impartially based on the demands of the village people. Thereby,
dignity of the court could be established, she opined. –BSS, Rajshahi
