CJ wants to introduce evening court

Evening shifts will be introduced at courts if the government and lawyers agree to the plan for reducing the backlog of cases in the country, said Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a two-day workshop, "Strengthening Judicial Performance Evaluation and Establishing Criteria for Measuring Success".

The Supreme Court organised it at Brac Centre in Savar, on the capital's outskirts, in association with USAID.

Justice Sinha said, "The case backlog is now a hot issue in our country and somehow we feel uncomfortable when this issue is raised in any discussion. We do not have any magic wand. One of the main reasons behind this is [an] awful shortage of judges in both tiers of the judiciary, lack of infrastructure and impediments created by the concerned ministry in the process of recommendation of competent officers to the coveted posts."

Compared to 16 crore people, 1,600 judges are too inadequate, he said. "Until and unless the present strength of the judges is not increased at least no dramatic change can be expected."

The CJ believes only appointment will not suffice. The judges must receive frequent training and logistic supports, he said.

"Even with all the shortcomings that come between our heartiest endeavor and success, last year our all-out effort had pushed us up and we could able [sic] to dispose of more cases than before. The cumulative figure of disposal crossed 100% in both higher and subordinate judiciaries in 2015 compared to 2014," Justice Sinha said.

There are more than 30 lakh cases pending across the country now.

The CJ said 173 of around 1,500 lower court judges had to discharge duties in phases due to the shortage of courtrooms that caused a backlog of cases.

"In the last one year I extensively inspected the courts of the subordinate judiciary to find out the problems they are facing and the areas needed to be intervened. I found, alongside shortage of judges, paucity of logistic support and inadequate infrastructures contribute to case backlog. How a modern society can conceive that a judge is waiting for his turn to come to use court room for hearing and deciding the cases!" he said.

The chief justice said the government had to look into this reality and take urgent steps to solve the courtroom crises.

"It is deplorable that progress in constructing building for magistracy in most of the districts is very pathetic."           

The chief justice said judges were working tirelessly to serve people. "I have issued practice directions to them to utilize best of their court hours and following my directions judges in the subordinate judiciary [are] now doing judicial business in two shifts, i.e. even after the recesses at noon."

Justice SK Sinha urged the lawyers to cooperate with courts in hearing cases in the afternoon.

"All concerned have to bear in mind that we cannot afford to sit idle while millions of cases are pending," he said.

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat also spoke on the occasion as special guest. Forty judicial officials participated in the workshop.