HC halts civil case transfer to trial courts for 3 months
The High Court yesterday directed the authorities concerned not to take any steps for transferring civil cases pending with the High Court to the lower courts for next three months.
The court also issued a rule upon the authorities to explain in four weeks why the section 4(3) of the Civil Court (amendment) Act 2016 that permitted the authorities to transfer civil cases should not be declared illegal.
Law secretary, registrar general of the Supreme Court and the High Court's registrar have been made respondent to the rule.
The bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir came up with the rule following a writ petition filed by three Supreme Court lawyers challenging the legality of the section.
Saidul Alam Khan, Abdullah Al Sayeed and Shubhra Deb Ratul submitted the petition challenging the legality of the section 4 (3) of the act, which permitted the lower court judges to hear and dispose of the civil cases involving Tk 2 lakh to Tk 5 crore.
The government issued a gazette notification on May 12 this year on the amendment of the Civil Court Act 1887.
Section 4(3) of the amended act says the appeals of cases involving from Tk 5 lakh to Tk 5 crore will be shifted from the HC to the lower courts for their disposal in ninety days from May 12.
According to the section, an assistant judge will be now able to handle civil cases involving assets worth Tk 15 lakh up from Tk 2 lakh, for senior assistant judges the sum is now Tk 25 lakh instead of Tk 4 lakh, and for district judges it is Tk 5 crore up from the previous Tk 5 lakh.
Petitioners said the litigants will suffer due to the section of the amended civil court act as they have to move the cases further at the lower court and therefore create a backlog of cases.
Comments