Govt moves to settle long-pending cases
The government has taken initiatives to dispose of cases pending with different courts of the country for a long time.
‘We’ve taken some measures to expedite the disposal of long-pending cases… the results will be visible soon,’ said Law Minister Anisul Huq, reports the UNB.
Law Ministry sources said some judges will be recruited soon, aiming to reduce the judicial backlog.
Sources at the Bangladesh Supreme Court said there are currently over 33.54 lakh civil and criminal cases pending with courts across the country.
Among the cases, 1,383,591 are civil ones, 17,84,860 are criminal cases and 86,049 others, mostly contempt petitions.
From October 1 to December 31, 2017, the number of civil cases pending with the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division is 11,199, High Court Division 93,174 and district, session’s judge courts, magistrate courts and tribunals 12,79,218.
Dr Md Zakir Hossain, Registrar General of the Supreme Court, told UNB that letters have been sent to lower court judges as per a Supreme Court directive to dispose of cases pending for more than five years on priority basis.
There is no alternative to disposing of the cases which are at more than five years old on a priority basis, he added.
Barrister Badruddoza, former secretary at the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association, told UNB that manpower shortage is the main reason behind the piling up of cases, alongside lawyers taking too much time in deliberation.
He said appointing judges and providing them logistical support to ensure smooth disposal of the cases are the key to reducing the number of pending cases.
According to the latest Supreme Court statistics, from October 1 to December 31, 2017, the number of cases at their preliminary stages stood at 33.12 lakh, along with 4.30 lakh revived ones.
Among the preliminary cases, 18,043 cases are pending with the Appellate Division, while 4.86 lakh with the High Court and 32.38 lakh with other courts.
The number of cases that have been settled during the period stands at 27.4 lakh and 1478 of which were settled in the Appellate Division, 9804 in the High Court and the remaining 2.62 lakh in other lower magistrate courts.
The High Court is currently burdened with 4.76 lakh cases, with an additional 9,804 cases reported to have been settled so far.
Division No. of ongoing cases No. of civil cases No. of criminal cases
Dhaka 11,02,710 4,69,496 6,33,214
Chattogram 5,24,563 2,23,944 3,00,619
Rajshahi 3,40,064 1,60,844 1,79,220
Khulna 3,63,730 1,96,427 1,67,303
Barishal 1,64,326 87,912 76,414
Sylhet 1,41,192 55,068 86,124
Rangpur 2,25,600 85,889 1,39,711
Total No. of cases 28,61,185 12,79,580 15,81,605
Among these, the following types of civil and criminal cases have been filed the most:
Type of case No. of cases ongoing No. of cases settled
Family cases 66170 6735
Financial scam 8266 312
Loan default 30614 1847
Inherited property claims 90275 4132
Land survey 2,80,419 3986
Labour-related 12,607 1640
Women and children abuse 1,65,400 7976
Special tribunal 92801 1416
Anti-terrorism 591 4
Acid crime 454 14
Narcotics 1,25,390 2313
Money laundering 52 00
Juvenile delinquency 17,992 567
Speedy Trial 3207 495
Cyber Crime 765 49
