People-friendly court

After the demise of her landless husband, domestic help Runu Begum, 45, with her only child Surma, took shelter at her father's house at Sakhipur village in Barguna's Bamna upazila several years ago. Surma is now an HSC first year student of a local college.

Runu often faces inhuman behaviour from her brothers. On June 4 this year, Runu and her daughter were physically tortured by one of her brothers and nephews over a trivial matter.

After the incident, Runu started heading for the local police station, but on the way Eusuf Ali, a member of village police, advised her to file a case with local Gram Adalat (village court) instead of police station after hearing her sorry tale.

Following a case filed by Runu at a cost of only Tk 10 as fee, the village court, led by the local union parishad (UP) chairman, issued a summon notice to the accused to appear before the court.

After hearing both sides, the court  asked the accused for pardon for their bad deeds and fined them Tk 1,000 as treatment cost of Runu and Surma. The accused also made commitment not to torture the woman and her daughter further.

“I am very grateful to the court as they heard me and gave their judgment in a very short time,” said Runu.

There was a longstanding dispute between auto-rickshaw driver Motiar Rahman of Karuna village in Betagi upazila and his neighbour Shahin Khan over borrowing Tk 50,000.

On January 20 this year, Motiar filed a case with the village court at Mokamia UP office by paying fee of only Tk 20. After examining witnesses and evidence, the court in its judgment on March 5 asked Shahin to repay the money to Motiar. The latter got the amount following the verdict.

Like Runu and Motiar, many got justice through the village court in different union parishads of the coastal district.

The government enacted a law named 'Gram Adalat Ain-2006 (Amendment 2013) to resolve the petty matters at a low cost. Local UP conducts the court, but due to lack of technical knowledge, the court failed to play its role properly.

Later, the LGRD ministry, with the help of European Union (EU) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), implemented a project titled 'Activating Village Court'. The second phase of the project started in January last year, which will end in December 2019 in order to improve access to justice for disadvantaged and marginalised groups.

Twenty-five unions of Amtali, Bamna, Betagi and Pathorghata upazilas have been brought under the project and total 1,436 cases out of 1,545 were disposed in the courts till August 30 this year, said Kamol Banerjee, Barguna district facilitator of UNDP under the project.

 The courts also realised a total of Tk 1.17 crore and gave it to the victims in the cases during the time, he said.

Any plaintiff can file a case with the village court by paying only Tk 10 in criminal and Tk 20 in civil nature matters, valued up to Tk 75,000, said Kamol Banerjee.

As many as 1,080 unions of 128 upazilas in 27 districts have been brought under the coverage of the project, said Banerjee.

Advocate Shahjahan, a lawyer of Barguna District and Sessions Judge's Court, said village court is getting popularity among the locals as it promptly resolves petty matters at a token cost.