n
The Gram Adalat (village court), an alternative dispute resolution system, is severely underutilised in the Union Parishads (UP) of Moulvibazar district.
Salish, the traditional system of arbitration, is more preferred by UP chairmen and justice seekers in rural areas than the Gram Adalat.
Locals allege that UP chairmen and members of Moulvibazar spend a significant amount of time each week attending salish but not many cases of Gram Adalat.
Talking to various concerned people, The Dhaka Tribune found many reasons behind the unpopularity of Gram Adalat. Among them worth mentioning are the lack of knowledge of merit and importance of Gram Adalat, poor outreach among rural people, interference of so called local heads, inadequate infrastructure, and disinterest of UP chairmen in the system.
Most of the UP offices in different upazilas of Moulvibazar are running without a trial room for Gram Adalat. According to Union Parishad sources, of the 12 UP under Moulvibazar sadar upazila, trial rooms have been set up in only four UP offices.
Stressing on the importance of the system, Mizanur Rahman, Sylhet Divisional Coordinator of the Mass Line Media Centre, an NGO working with local government, said: “The rural people could benefit a lot by Gram Adalat. It could help dispense justice at the door steps of the villagers without going through a long-drawn formal legal process.”
The procedure to seek justice to Gram Adalat is not a very complicated one. One has to just lodge a written complaint to the UP chairman and pay Tk4 fees for civil matter and Tk2 for criminal matter. Upon receiving the application, the UP chairman will issue notices to the parties involved in the dispute to attend the Gram Adalat on specific date and time for hearing.
According to the Gram Adalat Ain formulated in 2006, the highest penalty it can impose is Tk25,000. Any aggrieved side of the case, however, can appeal against the verdict of the Gram Adalat to a first class magistrate court for criminal cases and in the assistant judge court for civil cases.
Sujit Kumar Das, chairman of Amtoil UP under Sadar upazila said: “The objective of the Gram Adalat is to save the rural people from expensive and time-consuming traditional justice system.” He further added that the justice seekers in rural areas in most cases habitually depend on salish as it was more informal and quicker than the Gram Adalat.
In the meantime, the Jatiya Sangsad passed an amendment to the Gram Adalat Ain on September 2013 with a provision to incorporate several new clauses into the existing act for the smooth carrying out of judicial activities at the village level.
Clash, theft, damaging of crops, harming livestock, breach of monetary deal, and poisoning fish in ponds etc. can be settled in the village court as per the law. The amended act strengthens the institutional sustainability of the Gram Adalat and increases the pecuniary jurisdiction of the court from Tk25,000 to Tk75,000.
Describing the inception of Gram Adalat as a praise-worthy initiative, Rumel Ahmed, chairman of Mostafapur UP laid emphasis on bolstering the outreach of Gram Adalat for the system to become popular and widely used.