SC Appellate Division having judge shortage

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has been facing a shortage of judges as vacant posts of four judges who retired have not been filled. Besides, one of the seven sitting judges of the court is set to retire on October 1 this year.

Though the rate of case disposal has increased, the backlog of cases at the apex court is rising due to a crisis of judges.

An SC report said 15,346 cases were pending with the court as of December 31 last year, while 14,338 cases were waiting for disposal till December 31, 2013. On December 31, 2012 the number of cases pending was 16,647.    

The Appellate Division has disposed of 5,911 cases last year, 5,035 in 2013 and 2,905 in 2012, according to the report published in February this year.

On March 31, 2013 four judges were appointed to the apex court from the High Court Division, increasing the number of its judges to ten with one vacant post. Afterwards, three judges, including the then chief justice, retired at different times taking the number of vacant posts to four. 

On January 18 this year, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha at a programme emphasised doubling the number of judges in courts across the country.

The Supreme Court Bar Association has also been demanding appointment of judges to fill up the four vacant posts at the apex court for quick disposal of the pending cases.

SCBA President Khandker Mahbub Hossain told The Daily Star that once four judges are appointed to the Appellate Division, three separate benches can be constituted to dispose of a large number of cases quickly.

On June 26, Law Minister Anisul Huq told this correspondent that a few judges would be appointed to the Appellate Division from the High Court Division after the budget session of the parliament.

He said his ministry would soon request the chief justice for recommendations for appointing High Court judges to the apex court.

The law minister, however, did not clearly mention when and how many judges would be appointed.

Earlier on July 9, 2009, the then president raised the number of judges at the Appellate Division from seven to 11 prior to disposing of some important cases on the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, among others.