Staff Correspondent:

The judicial reform commission has proposed the appointment of retired district judges on contractual basis to resolve the case backlogs. The commission has recommended appointing retired district judges on ad-hoc basis for two to three years in districts with high caseloads.

There is a section under the title ‘reducing caseloads’ in the final report of the judiciary reform commission. The proposal to reappoint retired judges came as an urgent short-term arrangement in that chapter.

The report says retired district judges could be appointed through an amendment of the Special Court Act-2003 in compliance with the Section 49 of the Government Service Act of 2018. The commission also stressed on seeking permission from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court before the law amendment to avoid any plausible complications centering the appointments.

The final reports of the six reform commissions, including the judiciary reform commission, were published on the Cabinet Division website on 8 February. The eight-member commission headed by retired Appellate Division justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman was formed on 3 October. The 352-page report of the judiciary contains a total of 31 sections with various reform proposals and recommendations.

The report says a total of 4,299,599 cases were under trial as of 31 December 2023. The commission says it is impossible to bring down the backlogs of cases to a tolerable level unless the number of judges is not doubled or tripled, that is the number of judges at subordinate courts must be increased to at least 6,000 considering our population and caseloads.

However, appointment of additional 4,000 judges is a time-consuming process. At the same time, newly recruited judges might lack experience. Therefore, the judges must be appointed in phases, and in that case a ratio of one judge against every 1,000 cases has to be followed. Besides, necessary infrastructure, manpower and logistic support (other facilities) should be arranged on an urgent basis with the appointment of these additional judges, the report said.

The commission further proposed that honest, efficient retired district judges in good health could be appointed for two to three years on contractual basis in districts with more pending criminal appeals, criminal revision, civil appeals and civil revisions. These judges could be posted in districts with backlogs of at least 1,000 appeals and revisions.

Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association former secretary and senior lawyer M Badruddoza said, “Naturally the retired judges will be senior to most of the acting district judges. In that case, case distribution among the judges and their jurisdiction must be specified, otherwise this initiative won’t yield any outcome.”

He further said, “It is also essential to ensure complete utilisation of work hours to resolve the backlogs of cases. Besides, it should be made mandatory for the judges to submit a report on settled cases every three months which would be monitored under the direct supervision of a specific High Court Division justice in every district to reduce caseload and to increase case settlement rate.”

The long-term recommendations proposed by the reform commission includes ensuring institutional freedom of the Supreme Court (SC), formation of a commission to ensure transparency and acceptability in the recruitment process of SC judges, reform of the existing process of recruitment, promotion and transfer of judges at the subordinate courts, introducing an independent crime investigation service to ensure a speedy and neutral investigation, allocation of necessary fund for the judiciary, keeping it beyond the control of the administration as much as possible and decentralisation of the judiciary.

PREVENTING FAKE AND HARASSING SUITS

The report cited lodging false cases and subsequent hassles of the accused has become a regular phenomenon in the existing judicial system of the country. In the chapter titled “Preventing fake and harassment suits” the commission put forth some observations. They remarked that caseload soars with every political changeover. Besides, there are numerous cases of misuse and misapplication of laws.

The commission says although the constitution has provisions with specific penal code and criminal proceedings to serve penalty and lodge in case of fraudulent or false cases, they are hardly implemented.

The commission recommends that necessary decisions have to be taken by means of an extensive analysis and study and talks with the relevant stakeholders for the legislation of realistic law to prevent false and harassing suits.

The home ministry may issue directives that if there are enough reasons to doubt the authenticity of the case or the case statement fails to specify the role of the accused in the crime, the law enforcement must refrain from arresting that respective person.