Govt moves to appoint 20 more HC judges

The government plans to appoint around 20 more High Court judges to deal with a huge backlog of cases.
They are likely to get appointment in January next year, so that their service can be confirmed within the Awami League-led grand alliance government rule that will end in January 2014, law ministry sources said.
As per the constitution, the fresh recruits will have to serve as additional judges for two years to get their jobs regularised.
Since the coalition assumed office in January 2009, as many as 52 HC judges have been appointed so far.
Fifteen High Court judges, appointed at the fag end of previous Awami League government's term, were not regularised after BNP-Jamaat alliance came to power in October 2001.
Ten of them were reappointed by the present government following a series of legal battles at the High Court and Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam has told The Daily Star that the government will take steps to recruit the judges after arranging office rooms and other logistics for them.
The High Court needs more judges to increase the frequency of case disposal, reduce the number of pending cases and ensure fair justice, he said.
“The government is working to recover the Supreme Court land from Roads and Highways Department as per a Supreme Court directive. If the piece of land is retrieved, the office building of Roads and Highways can be allocated for the Supreme Court judges and then the new judges will be appointed,” he said.
The Supreme Court on July 29 this year upheld a High Court order that directed the government to protect and maintain its 55.5 acres of land in the capital.
SC lawyers Asaduzzaman Siddiqui and Aklas Uddin Bhuiyan in January informed the HC through a writ petition that different organisations were grabbing the SC land. Among them, Roads and Highways Department was illegally occupying around seven acres and Shishu Academy around 2.5 acres.
According to the SC sources, some three lakh cases are now pending with the High Court Division and about 11,000 cases with the Appellate Division. The HC Division has 98 judges and the Appellate Division eight judges.