Speeding up of justice stressed
Speakers at a seminar here yesterday stressed on the need to change the old mindset alongside strengthening legislative, administrative and institutional measures to enforce alternative dispute resolution (ADR) system and speed up justice .
They said laws were amended several times in the past but all concerned including judges, lawyers and officials should change their mindset and be quicker in disposing cases to ensure people's constitutional right to justice.
Bangladesh Law Commission and South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS) jointly organised the seminar titled "Enforcing court sponsored alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Bangladesh" at Rajshahi Tennis Complex.
Attending the seminar as chief guest, Justice M Muzammel Hossain, appellate division of the Supreme Court, urged judges, lawyers and others concerned to discourage filing of cases that can be resolved through mediation and arbitration.
“Look over the faces of those seeking justice. Most of them are poor and destitute. Your prompt actions will reduce a lot of their sufferings," he said.
Internationally reputed lawyer Dr Kamal Hossain attended as guest of honour.
He said, “Delay in disposal, backlog of cases, people's attitude and environment toward justice remain. Laws were amended twice in the past, but we could not implement ADR due to our mentality and environment.”
He said ADR could play a big role to speed up dispute resolution, as it has been a revolution in quickly disposing disputes outside courts in the subcontinent.
Justice SK Sinha said lawyers should give more importance on the matter of the cases rather than taking one up simply to earn quick money.
Law Commission Chairman Justice Muhammad Abdur Rashid presided over the event.
He said courts are already overburdened with cases. ADR would facilitate people with better access to justice and relieve them of prolonged trial procedures, he added.
Law commission's research officers informed some 15,25,889 cases were pending at lower courts until January 2010 while 2,93,901 cases at the High Court and 9,375 cases at the appellate division.
And the number of cases at court is increasing daily, they added.
On the other hand, there are 80,000 prisoners in jails where the capacity is for only 30,000 they said, adding that 73 percent of the prisoners are detained without trial.
The discussants suggested for establishing mediation and arbitration centres in each district, establishing separate institutes to train individuals on mediation and introducing compulsory mediation and separate funds for running village courts.
Law commission members Shah Alam, Sunil Chandra Paul, Research Officers Akhtaruzzaman, Sharmin Negar, Atwar Rahman, Rajshahi District Judge M A Samad, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Moshiur Rahman, Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Delwar Bakht, Bar President Abul Kashem, Rajshahi University law teachers Anisur Rahman, Hasibiul Alam Prodhan and Uttom Kumar Das of SAILS addressed among others.
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