‘Formulate law to rehabilitate people released after delayed trials’

Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim today stressed the need for a specific law for rehabilitation of the people who get released from jail after languishing in custody for long periods due to delays in trial proceedings of cases against them.

“There is no law for rehabilitating such people. If there was a specific law, it would have been easy to rehabilitate them and the judges could pass necessary orders to this effect. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate of such a law,” he said while replying to questions from reporters at a “meet the press” event at the conference room of the apex court.

The SCLAC, which has been providing legal assistance with the helpless and destitute people since September 2015, organised the programme prior to National Legal Aid Day set to be observed on April 28.

Justice Enayetur, also a judge of the High Court Division of the SC, said a specialised centre might be established for rehabilitating the people, who get released from jail after long periods.

There is tort law for giving compensations to the victims and the government perhaps plans to give compensation to such people, he said.

The judge also said that the HC has issued some orders for granting bail to the people who were in jail with little progress in their trial proceedings following reports published and broadcast by the media.

If the media publishes more reports on such incidents, the government will feel it necessary to rehabilitate them, he said, adding that non-government organisations have scope to play a role to this effect.

Assistant Attorney General Titus Hillol Rema, also a member secretary to the SCLAC, presented a written statement saying that the SCLAC placed the issues of 58 people languishing in jail for more than 10 years before the HC.

The HC has so far granted bail to 18 of them and passed relevant directives about others’ trial proceedings, he added.   

Supreme Court Bar Association Secretary Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Supreme Court Registrar General Syed Aminul Islam, among others, also spoke during the programme.