HC gets 11 new judges

The High Court Division of the Supreme Court got 11 new additional judges yesterday, but experts felt more judges should have been appointed to deal with the huge backlog of cases.

This appointment comes over 33 months after the last recruitment.

President Abdul Hamid made the appointments in line with article 98 of the constitution, raising the number of HC judges to 95. The president for the last time appointed nine additional HC judges on October 20, 2019.

Around 5 lakh cases are pending with this court.

Of the 11 new judges, five were lower court judges, three deputy attorney generals (DAGs) and three SC lawyers.

The judges are: Justice Mohammad Showkat Ali Chowdhury (former district and sessions judge on PRL), Justice Md Atabullah (former district and sessions judge of Cumilla), Justice Bishwajit Debnath (former DAG), Justice Md Aminul Islam (former DAG), Md Bazlur Rahman (former registrar general of Bangladesh Supreme Court), Justice KM Emrul Kayesh (former metropolitan sessions judge of Dhaka), Justice Fahmida Quader (former district and sessions judge of Tangail), Justice Md Bashir Ullah (former DAG), and Justice Md Ali Reza, Justice SM Masud Hossain Dolan and Justice AKM Rabiul Hasan (former SC lawyers).

Later in the day, Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique administered the oath to the new HC judges at the Judges' Lounge of the Supreme Court where judges of the SC's appellate and high court divisions were present.

Law minister, attorney general and some SC lawyers expressed satisfaction with the appointments, but they felt that more judges should have been appointed to this court.

"I hope the rate of case disposals at the High Court will increase and therefore, justice for the litigants will be ensured following the appointments of 11 new judges," Law Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin said, "Appointment of judges is a continuous process. I hope more judges will be appointed to the High Court in phases, and there will not be any crisis of judges in this court."

Md Abdun Nur Dulal, Supreme Court Bar Association secretary, told this correspondent, "We are happy at this appointment to the High Court, though we expected more judges would have been appointed as it is burdened with a huge number of pending cases. Only 11 judges' appointments are not sufficient in this situation. I hope at least 50 more judges will be appointed to the appellate and high court divisions soon to tackle the pressure of pending cases."

The HC judge crisis started following retirement and deaths of some judges and elevation of four judges to the Supreme Court.

Of the 84 other HC judges, three are judges of the International Crimes Tribunal. Three others are barred from judicial duties.

The number of pending cases in the HC was 4,52,963 as of December 31, 2020, according to the SC.