Lawyers across the country are facing serious problems in participating in virtual courts due to their digital illiteracy and lack of knowledge on using computers.
Although lawyers say they are not against the digitization of court procedure, they expressed their unease about the ongoing court activities.
However, they demanded a resumption of regular court activities which were halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic across the country, appealing for more time to develop expertise in using digital devices.
Meanwhile, in the proposed budget for 2020-21 fiscal year, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said each court will be transformed into an e-court room under an e-judiciary project that has been undertaken to bring the subordinate courts in Bangladesh under the ICT (information and communication technology) network.
Lawyers of Dhaka courts protested against the virtual court activities on May 31 and legal practitioners in other districts also staged such demonstrations later.
Dhaka Bar Association (DBA) General Secretary Md Hossain Ali Khan Hassan told Dhaka Tribune: "Majority of lawyers are opposing activities of virtual court due to lack of digital knowledge and absence of digital devices. This is why our lawyers staged protests against the activities of virtual court and demanded the resumption of regular court.”
As various government offices reopened on May 31, the authorities concerned should take initiatives to resume regular activities of courts to ensure the livelihood of thousands of lawyers across the country, he continued.
The DBA leader said that lawyers are eager to participate in regular court activities, ensuring health safety measures, and to avoid case backlog as well.
Advocate HM Masum, office secretary of DBA, said there are about 50,000 lawyers in various courts across the country. Of them, 25,206 are DBA members.
"Majority of the lawyers have no alternative income sources. So it can be said that the livelihood of 50,000 lawyers are at risk due to the absence of a regular court."
The activities of both higher and lower courts have become almost stagnant after the first Covid-19 cases were detected in the country on March 8.
The authorities concerned were forced to shut down court activities since March 26 due to the pandemic situation. Virtual court activities were later resumed on a limited scale for hearing bail petitions on May 11 and for remand hearing along with e-filing of cases under the Negotiable Instruments Act on June 7.
Senior lawyers struggle more
Leaders of DBA said that particularly senior lawyers are opposing virtual court activities as most of them cannot use information technology (IT) without help of others.
They (seniors) feel embarrassed to take part in digital hearing as they do not have much IT expertise, said a DBA leader.
As per the process, a lawyer has to be registered with the court website (mycourt.judiciary.org.bd) to participate in activities of virtual court where mobile number and email address of the lawyer is essential.
After completing registration, a text is sent to the lawyer via mobile phone. The registered lawyer has to create a password within 24 hours of getting the text and later he/she can participate in court procedures through logging in the website.
A smart mobile phone or computer is enough for a lawyer to participate in such activities, but many are unable to do so as they are scared of using information technology and have no proper training or facilities.
It can be mentioned that a project with the assistance of UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) is now on as part of digitizing the court activities to make its procedures speedy and easier.
Taking a lesson from the ongoing pandemic crisis, lawyers said they have no alternative but to be familiar with the virtual court activities in the upcoming future, but at the moment, they are struggling to cope with the activities for the lack of proper digital knowledge.
