Lower court to get 200 new assistant judges
The government has taken an initiative to appoint 100 assistant judges to lower courts, in addition to another 100 whose appointments are now under process.
After the appointments of the 200 new assistant judges, the rate of case disposal by lower courts will improve, and the huge backlog of pending cases -- and the sufferings it brings to litigants -- will ease, Supreme Court Spokesman Md Saifur Rahman told The Daily Star.
He said there are now a total of 1,822 judges discharging duties at the lower courts across the country, and they are burdened with around 31 lakh cases.
The law ministry -- through a requisition letter -- recently asked Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission (BJSC) authorities to select qualified candidates for the appointment of 100 assistant judges, through holding necessary examinations, BJSC sources told this correspondent.
When this correspondent tried to contact secretary to the BJSC Syed Zahed Mansur over this issue on December 23, one of his staffers said the secretary was not interested to talk to the media.
Meanwhile, the judicial service commission is now holding written tests of 1,473 candidates -- who have qualified in the preliminary test -- for 100 posts of the assistant judges as per the previous requisition from the government.
The written test will be finished on December 29. After the result is published, viva voce and medical tests of the qualified candidates will be held.
After selecting the qualified candidates, the commission will recommend the government to appoint them to the post of assistant judges.
Then the government will conduct police verification of selected candidates, after which the president will give appointments to the final qualified candidates, BJSC sources said.
The sources, however, could not say specifically how much time will be required to complete these processes.
BJSC will decide when to start examinations for selecting qualified candidates for the posts of the new 100 assistant judges, after completion of oral and medical tests of candidates who would qualify in the ongoing written test, according to sources.
Sources said judicial officials are appointed only at the entry level to the post of assistant judges, while the other tiers of lower court judges are filled through promotions.
A total of 1,742 candidates have been qualified so far in the BJSC tests since its formation in 2007.
Previously, executive magistrates who qualified in the Bangladesh Civil Service (BSC) examinations had discharged the judicial functions.
These executive magistrates were absorbed into administrative posts after the separation of magistracy through the separation of judiciary from the executive on November 1, 2007, sources added.
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