Bangla should be language of higher court : Experts

Legal experts yesterday urged the authorities concerned for taking steps to bring into practice the use of Bangla language in the proceedings and verdicts of the higher court.
There should not be "ifs" and "buts" about the use of Bangla in the higher court, said former chief justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman.
If the constitution, which contains many complex matters, is written in Bangla, then why the court proceedings and verdicts could not be written in the language, he told a discussion, “Use of Bangla Language in Higher Court: Necessity and Limitations”, in the capital's ICMAB auditorium.
“Lack of courage is our limitation,” observed Justice Habibur, also former chief adviser to a caretaker government.
The discussion was jointly organised by Bangladesh Ainjibi Samiti (BAS) and Bangla daily Prothom Alo.
National Human Rights Commission Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman said Bangla was not used in the higher court for opposition from some lawyers and judges. “One kind of ethnocentrism is in work within them. They want to create a distance from the litigants,” he said.
Salimullah Khan, a professor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), said the language of the litigants should be used in the court.
He said the demand for recognition of Bangla as one of the UN official languages was “contradictory” when Bangla was not in use in the higher court of Bangladesh.
Supreme Court Bar Association of Bangladesh President Zainul Abedin and Prothom Alo Associate Editor Abdul Kaium, among others, spoke at the event.