Testimony thru' video conference necessary
A team of legal experts has proposed that the government initiate measures for recording statements of witnesses of criminal cases through video conference if they stay in distant places.
“Delaying in producing witnesses in court is one of the major problems in settling criminal cases… If the logistic support for video conference is made available at courts and relevant laws are amended, the problem will largely be solved,” said Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif, a High Court judge.
“We, including Justice Md Imman Ali (a judge of the Appellate Division), have placed some proposals to the government to this effect,” he said while addressing a function yesterday.
“We already have interactions with the A2I project under the Prime Minister's Office on bringing all courts under a common network and taking statements of witnesses through video conference,” he said in the context of delay in disposal of criminal cases involving children.
Jagrata Juba Shangha (JSS), with the assistance of Unicef, organised the "National Level Sharing Meeting on Diversion Under Children Act 2013: Experiences of Khulna and Jessore" at The Daily Star Centre in the capital.
The Children Act 2013 covers a wide range of areas about special judicial mechanism and introduction of alternative care and diversions for the protection of children, who are engaged with different types of criminal offence.
Diversion means one kind of alternative social arbitration system instead of taking children to formal judicial proceedings for committing crimes. Under this system, children, who committed lighter crimes, are released through intervention of law enforcers, government officials, NGOs and guardians of children.
The main purpose of diversion is to give children a chance so that they can rectify their mistakes under parental care and affection.
JSS has been implementing a project for the last two years in Khulna and Jessore promoting diversion of children.
A total of 173 children have been rehabilitated and sent back to their families from January 2015 to September 2016, said JSS officials.
Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division Additional Secretary Nasreen Begum, Deputy Inspector General (DIG-Training and Sports) of Police Dr Kh Mahid Uddin, child rights activists and judicial officials spoke at the function.
All of them emphasised coordinated efforts from both government and non-government sectors for protecting maximum rights of children, and in this regard they called for full implementation of the Children Act.
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