Dispose of cases in 6 months: HC

The High Court yesterday directed the family courts of the country to hear and dispose of the cases filed over the custody of children in six months.

The law secretary and Supreme Court registrar general have been asked to communicate the directive to the family courts concerned.

The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman delivered the verdict following a petition filed by a mother in Rangpur seeking her child's custody from her ex-husband.

The bench ordered the family court in Dhaka to finish the trial proceedings of the case filed by the petitioner by March 31 next year.

It also asked the child's father to allow her (child) mother (petitioner) to visit the child at her convenient times during the trial proceedings of the case.

The writ petitioner's lawyer Md Motaher Hossain Sazu and Deputy Attorney General Bepul Bagmar told The Daily Star that the HC directed family courts to dispose of custody cases in six months as many such cases have been pending for long periods (two to three years) without any trial.

They also mentioned that there is no specific time limit to finish proceedings of such cases in the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961.

Motaher Hossain Sazu said the writ petitioner married a man from Rajshahi in 2011. They had a daughter in 2015.

In 2018, they got divorced and since then the child has been staying with her father. The mother filed a case with the family court in Dhaka seeking custody of the child. As the family court failed to settle the case, she submitted the petition with the HC this year, the lawyer added.