Lower court judge crisis

It is said the wheels of justice move slowly in Bangladesh. When each lower court judge is burdened with an average of 2,000 cases for hearing and disposal, we begin to comprehend why it takes years to wind up legal proceedings. This has been a nagging problem for some time now and we understand that there are some 397 judges' posts lying vacant in the lower courts. The Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission has taken up the process of appointing some 207 judges (who would complement the existing pool of 1,397 judges) which would go a long way to disposing many of the 27.5 lakh cases pending disposal nationwide.

The whole course of action is slowed down as police verification is needed but we find that there is delay each step of the way as the home ministry has apparently not yet sent the files to the police to complete the checking and vetting needed before the recruitment process may commence. And when we look at the fact that back in September 2014, the law commission had recommended the recruitment of 3,000 judges to ease the case congestion; we find that slow decision-making at policy level is primarily responsible for not appointing judges quickly enough.

All these delays inevitably are detrimental to the development of an effective and empowered judicial system. This is an issue of utmost importance and although we appreciate the law minister's recognition of the need for new judges to deal with the millions of pending cases, the case of police verification must be prioritised so that justice seekers don't have to suffer lengthy legal battles anymore.