JS panel for evening shift at all courts

A parliamentary body has recommended that the government introduce evening shift at both lower and higher courts to reduce the backlog of cases.
The parliamentary standing committee on law affairs came up with the suggestion at a meeting on Sunday at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
“It is the constitutional right that people will get justice within a reasonable period of time. But at present over 26 lakh cases are pending at different courts in the country.
That's why the committee members have unanimously made the recommendation for introducing evening session in courts,” Suranjit Sengupta, chief of the committee, told reporters at a briefing at the parliament's media centre yesterday.
Citing an example of the evening shift, Suranjit, also the ruling Awami League MP, said different countries, including India, have evening shift at courts.  
He also said the parliamentary watchdog has also proposed enacting a law for recruiting retired judges in the higher courts to meet the additional requirement of judges for running the evening shift.
The committee chief said they have also recommended increasing by 50 percent the remuneration of higher court judges.
Suranjit informed the reporters that the remuneration of the chief justice in India is Rs 1 lakh, in Pakistan Rs 1.99 lakh and in Sri Lanka Rs 70,000, whereas in Bangladesh the amount is only Tk 56,000.
“Remuneration and privileges of judges must increase for getting brilliant and quality people in the judiciary,” he said.
The former minister also said, “It does not matter if the remuneration of the Supreme Court judges is higher than that of the country's president or prime minister.”
He said remuneration and privileges of the chief justice in Sri Lanka, India and the USA are higher than what their president gets.
Suranjit also said judges cannot be equated with other government service officials as they are under the judicial service pay commission.
Despite all courts, including the Supreme Court, disposing of over 11.19 lakh cases last year, more than 27.47 lakh cases were pending with them till December 31 that year.
A recent report of the SC shows that over 15.05 lakh cases were filed and revived at the courts across the country between January 1 and December 31 last year.
The Appellate Division of the SC resolved over 5,000 cases and its High Court Division more than 24,000 cases. The lower courts settled nearly 10.90 lakh cases during the time, it says.
The number of cases disposed of at both the Appellate and High Court Divisions was less last year than in 2012 due to political unrest. Additionally, there was an increase in the number of cases filed last year, says a Supreme Court high official.
On Sunday, Law Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star that his office had found the reasons behind the increase in the backlog of pending cases and had taken some steps to reduce the backlog.
The minister, however, declined to provide any details about the reasons and steps taken.
A law ministry high official, requesting anonymity, said the government had already amended the Civil Procedure Code to introduce alternative dispute regulation (ADR) for disposing of civil cases through a compromise between the parties in the cases in order to reduce the backlog.