Easing Case Backlog: Apex court to get new judges soon

Appointment of new judges for both the Appellate and High Court divisions of the Supreme Court is on the cards amid an acute shortage of judges with respect to the number of pending cases.

At present, two divisions of SC are burdened with a total of around 5.69 lakh pending cases, SC sources said.

The Appellate Division has been experiencing a huge backlog of cases including those related to BDR carnage, constitution's 16th amendment (judge's removal), Narayanganj's seven murder, and the 1971 war crimes.

Similarly, the High Court Division has a pile of cases pending including the ones regarding the August 21 grenade attack, murder of Feni's madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi, and murder of Barguna's Rifat Sharif.

"Some judges from the High Court Division will be elevated to the Appellate Division as some of the apex court judges have retired earlier," said Law Minister Anisul Huq.

"New judges will be appointed to fill up the vacancies of High Court Division," he also said.

He, however, did not specifically say when and how many judges will be elevated to the Appellate Division and how many new judges will be appointed to the High Court Division.

"The president will decide in this regard," the minister added.

The Appellate Division has been going through a crisis of judges as no new judge was appointed after December 8, 2022, while four judges including a chief justice went on retirement since then.

At present there are 11 judges in the division against a total of around 26,000 pending cases.

Former chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique retired on September 25 last year, while judges Muhammad Imman Ali, Md Nuruzzaman, and Borhanuddin retired on December 31 in 2022, June 30 last year, and February 27 this year respectively.

The number of judges in the High Court Division now stands at 87, which was 100 in June 2012.

Among them, three have been excluded from judicial functions for more than four years, as an inquiry centring them is pending.

Also, three other judges are running the International Crimes Tribunal to deal with 1971 war-crimes related cases.

With around a total of 5.43 lakh pending cases, the HC judges are burdened with more than 6,200 cases each.

The crisis of judges at the two SC divisions has further complicated the situation amid an already huge backlog of pending cases, said court sources.