Case backlog at HC rises

More than 28 lakh cases are pending with all the courts of the country, including the Supreme Court, causing tremendous suffering to litigants, say Supreme Court and law ministry sources.
The backlog at the high court division of the Supreme Court increased even more due to hartals and blockades last year. In 2012, around 2.98 lakh cases were pending which increased to around 3.23 lakh in a year.
Law Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star that his ministry had detected the reasons behind the increase of pending cases at the lower courts. He, however, did not elaborate on the matter.
He said the government had taken measures, including recruiting judges and out of court settlements, to reduce the backlog.
However, more than 2,300 pending cases were disposed of at the Appellate Division in 2013, due to a number of measures taken up by the chief justice.
In May 2011, the chief justice had promised to reduce the backlog of cases at the Appellate Division.
The number of cases pending with the Appellate Division until December 31, 2012 has come down from 16,647 to 14,338 in 2013, say insiders.
Supreme Court Registrar AKM Shamsul Islam said the case disposal rate at the Appellate Division increased after Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain had formed two benches more than a year ago.
The two benches -- one comprised of five judges and led by the chief justice himself and another of five other judges led by Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana -- are now dealing with the backlog.
The SC registrar said the chief justice had also taken some initiatives to quickly dispose petitions seeking stay on the HC orders and judgements.
Some lawyers had filed such petitions with the apex court, he said, adding that they usually did not make any further move for the final hearing or disposal of the stay petitions once the SC stayed an HC order.
As long as a petition remained pending with the SC, the related cases could not be disposed of at the lower courts, said the registrar, adding that the chief justice had given priority to speedy hearing and disposal of such petitions at the apex court.
A study has meanwhile revealed that more than 15,000 cases have been added to the list of pending cases at the HC due to hartals and blockades enforced by the BNP-led alliance since January 1 to December 4 last year.
During the time, the HC judges could not conduct proceedings on 59 days that added to the backlog. On average, as many as 260 cases are adjudicated by the HC on a workday.
On those strike days, most of the judges of the 53 HC benches and conducting lawyers could not sit for proceedings on security grounds although judges of the Supreme Court attended offices.
The Appellate Division judges usually hear cases on strike days if the lawyers attend the court. But most of the time the lawyers remain absent.