Scarcity of court rooms impeding settlement of cases

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Tofayel Hossain
Published : 02:00, Jun 17, 2019 | Updated : 02:00, Jun 17, 2019

Due to the absence of enough court space, work is impeded at the lower court. Consequently, case settlement is relatively low and justice seekers are suffering.
It’s found that on the sixth floor of the magistrate court, special magistracy cases are heard during the day, while in the afternoon, this is used for cyber tribunal.
On the fifth floor of the same building, the space is shared by swift tribunal and anti-terrorism related special tribunal.
Lawyers say that due to court crisis, a lot of time is wasted behind a case and justice seekers have to waste long hours waiting.
A justice seeker from Rangpur, said: “I have come from Rangpur for a hearing but it hasn’t started as yet.”
Writer’s assistant of the anti-terrorism tribunal, Md Ruhul Amin, said: “Tribunal does not have its own premises which creates problems. Cases like Holey Artisan attack, Avijit Roy killing, Kalyanpur militant attack have sessions here but the documents are unprotected.”
Bench assistant of women and children tribunal-9, Masud, observes: “Without separate room, many documents remain unprotected.”
Public prosecutor of the Bangladesh cyber tribunal, Nazrul Islam Shamim, said: “The court has to be divided which delays the conclusion of cases.”
Public prosecutor, Abdul Bari, of the women and children tribunal-1 says: “This is creating a lot of problems; one court ends at 2pm while the next one starts at 3 ending at 5 pm. The number of courts needs to be increased.”
Current president of the Dhaka Bar, Gazi Shah Alam said: “There is a scarcity of court rooms at the lower court and this can be settled with a new building.”
Chief counsel of the state, Abdullah Abu, assured: “Already, a chief judicial magistrate building has been constructed and once a few courts are transferred there, the crisis will be solved.”

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