Simply inhuman!
Anyone visiting our lower courts both criminal and civil will find number of people including old, disabled, children and some mothers with their infants crowded in the open porch ( veranda) of the courtrooms, anxiously awaiting their turns of hearing inside the court chambers. They have to remain standing for hours. Some tired of standing sit on the dirty floors to lessen their fatigue. One can see the pain and frustration on their faces. But they all have assembled there seeking justice. This looks so pathetic and horrible! No one seems to have felt or bothered about this inhuman treatment of people in front of our courts of justice, even after 38 years of our own rule. The scene in front of the courts of women and child repression is even worse, as if the government is teaching them lessons for filing cases.
Where as, by putting a few long wooden benches or concrete ones we can make them wait with human dignity. And how much does it cost when so much of public money is being wasted for meaningless purposes! In the past we used to blame the non-Bengali speaking Pakistani rulers. But now whom to blame?
The less we talk about the public toilet facilities for both the sexes inside the court premises, the better. Our honourable minister for law and parliamentary affairs promised many things including justice for all. How can the above escape his attention? Better late than never. Will the law ministry now pay attention to the above and alleviate the uncalled for sufferings of the general public at the doors of justice?
May I also draw the attention of the honourable minister if he could save the litigants from paying bribes just to confirm their physical presence ( hajira )? This is so heart burning that one, after enduring all adverse circumstances, reports in time at the court of law, is compelled to pay bribes to the court clerks including his lawyers as if his physical presence is of no meaning! I suppose by filling up a simple form and through a simple procedure, at least this one step of open corruption can be eliminated which has become so customary! As the days go by, the rates also go up. How can it be the sign that we are making progress? Let us prove that we live in a civilized society of a true democratic independent state of our own.
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