Significant reforms are needed to overcome bottlenecks slowing the pace of justice.
At all levels, the legal system suffers from chronic delays. Poorer litigants in civil actions are especially hard hit as they lack the resources to cope with delays in settling financial disputes.
Filling vacant judicial positions and providing more resources to help judges process cases is vital to help reduce the huge nationwide backlog in dealing with civil and criminal cases.
The Bar Council and government also need to look beyond the shortage of judges and lack of infrastructure. The slow pace of the system itself creates an incentive for litigants and lawyers to keep filing new cases, regardless of merit and possibility of success.
A proper system of protocols is needed to enable lawyers and court officials to encourage more out-of-work settlements in civil cases and to better screen out cases filed which have no merit.
An analysis by Dhaka Tribune of just one out of the nation’s 64 districts, found nearly half this district’s official requirement of 22 full-time judges posts left vacant. Court sources report over 14,000 cases pending in the district, and session judge’s court and a further 12,500 awaiting progress in the chief judicial magistrate court and Nari o Shishu Nirjaton Domon Tribunals.
Some judicial positions in the area have been unfilled for over two years, and it is not hard to find litigants in the district whose cases have been held up for far longer.
The government must both appoint and provide more resources and judges while also encouraging institutional reforms to speed up the legal system.