Courts hamstrung by judge crisis
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has been facing an acute shortage of judges, as no new one was appointed after December 8 last year.
Meanwhile, three judges including a chief justice have retired in the last 10 months.
Each of the Appellate Division judges, including Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, is burdened with around 3,750 cases on an average, as around 22,500 cases are pending with this court, SC sources said.
The number of apex court judges has come down to six from 11 in 2009, after appointments and retirements of some judges.
In the last 10 months, Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique retired on September 25, Justice Md Nuruzzaman retired on June 30 and Justice Muhammad Imman Ali on December 31 last year.
The number of Appellate Division judges has come down after retirements of few ones. New judges will be appointed soon.
On July 9, 2009, the then president raised the number of judges at the Appellate Division from seven to 11, prior to disposing of some important cases, including those centring the assassination of Bangabandhu and the fifth amendment to the constitution.
The High Court Division has also been facing a similar shortage of judges following retirement and death of some judges in the last couple of years.
The number of HC judges now stands at 89, which was 100 in June 2012.
Among the 89 HC judges, three have been excluded from judicial functions for more than four years, as an inquiry centring them is pending.
Three other judges are running the International Crimes Tribunal to deal with 1971 war-crimes related cases.
The HC judges are burdened with more than 6,265 cases each on average. About 5.2 lakh cases are pending with this court.
The crisis of judges at the Appellate and HC divisions has caused a huge backlog of pending cases.
Considering the situation, the government plans to elevate some HC judges to the Appellate Division.
"The number of Appellate Division judges has come down after retirements of few ones. So, new judges will be appointed to the Appellate Division soon," said Law Minister Anisul Huq.
He, however, did not specifically say when and how many judges will be elevated to the Appellate Division.
Replying to a question whether new judges will be appointed to the HC Division, he said, "I don't know about this."
Lower court judges are also burdened with a huge number of cases as there are just above 1,800 judges to deal with 37 lakh cases pending with the courts across the country, which means each of the judges will have to dispose of 2,000 cases on an average.
Meanwhile, last month, Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission (BJSC) has nominated 104 candidates for recruitment to the posts of assistant judge through holding 16th BJS exams.
The result of the BJS exams was published on September 24.
The home ministry will now conduct police verifications of the candidates and then the qualified ones will be appointed as lower court judges, a BJSC source told The Daily Star.
In 2014, Bangladesh Law Commission recommended the government to recruit 3,000 judges at lower courts for quick disposal of pending cases.
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