Govt plans to appoint 50 more HC judges

The government is planning to appoint 50 more judges to the High Court (HC) Division and a few judges to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) to deal with a huge backlog of cases.
Sources said the process of appointing new judges will start next year when a number of judges of both the divisions of the apex court will retire.
Talking to The Daily Star, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed recently said that at least 50 more judges should be appointed to the High Court Division in order to reduce the number of pending cases and to ensure fair justice.
The judges will be appointed after arranging office rooms and other logistic supports for them, he said.
The minister said the rate of disposal of cases will be increased after appointments of new HC judges and then more judges will be needed for the Appellate Division to keep pace with the rate of disposal of cases at the HC division.
"The number of judges to the apex court is very small in proportion to about 15 crore people in Bangladesh. There are 150 judges for the West Bengal High Court although the population is much less there compared to Bangladesh," he said.
SC sources said about three lakh cases are now pending with the HC Division while about 5,000 cases with the Appellate Division. There are now 11 judges for the Appellate Division and 78 judges for the HC Division.
Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin will retire on December 23 this year. Four judges of the Appellate Division --Justice Md Tafazzal Islam, Justice Md Joynul Abedin, Justice MA Matin and Justice Md Abdul Aziz --will also retire by the end of the next year, sources said.
Two HC judges--Justice MA Rashid and Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury--have retired this year and six other HC judges--Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman, Justice Md Abdul Aziz, Justice Bijan Kumar Das, Justice ABM Khairul Haque, Justice Muzammel Hossain and Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha--have been elevated to the Appellate Division.
The present government reappointed 10 HC judges whose jobs were not confirmed during the rule of BNP-Jamaat government. They were appointed as per the SC guidelines.
Md Bazlur Rahman Chhana, a former additional judge of the HC whose job was not confirmed by the previous four-party alliance government, was reappointed as a regular judge of the HC in May this year.
Besides, the government on June 23 this year appointed nine additional HC judges.