Court’s shoddy infrastructure worsens justice seeker’s woes

Former food inspector Mohsin Miah, who is now out on bail, comes to the judge court every month to attend a hearing on the corruption charge against him.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case in 2013 and he is now under trial. The investigation officer of the case submitted the charge sheet against him in 2015, and he was indicted on the basis of that.  

He retired from his job in 2015 and suffered a stroke the same year.

He became physically challenged after the stroke. He comes to the court on a wheelchair with an attendant.

The court does not have any special facilities for the physically challenged, the old, women and children.

The crowd of plaintiffs, lawyers and other officials in the area also leaves the court area congested.

The narrow space on the staircases, elevators and congested courtrooms makes it difficult to move with ease.  

Legal practitioners of the court claim that the authorities concerned pay little attention to the numerous problems that they regularly face at their workplace.

In many courtrooms there is not enough seating for litigants. They wait in the court premises where there is no electric fan.

The court doesn’t have any power generator, so when the electricity goes off, trials are hampered because many people get stuck in the lift.  

While the judges may use small fans, the lawyers and other people in the room have to tolerate the scorching heat.

Senior Advocate Sanjeev Kumar Shaha claimed that the court earns over Tk 10 crore per month, so the authorities concerned can solve the problem, if they wish.

At the Dhaka court, only the metropolitan sessions judge court and the chief judicial magistrate court are air-conditioned.

The HC issued a rule on June 23 on why it will not send out instructions to set up air-conditioners in all district courts of the country, and asked the secretaries of the law, power, finance ministries and the public works department to respond within four weeks.

Unfortunately, no visible progress has been seen after the rule was issued.  

Earlier on March 07, 2019, fourteen people including a liftman were injured in an elevator collapse at the District and Sessions Judge Court in old Dhaka.

Later on March 10, 2019, a writ petition was filed at the High Court (HC) seeking a directive on the government to compensate Tk 1 crore to each of fourteen people who were critically injured in the accident.

Asaduzzaman Khan Rochi, secretary of the Dhaka Bar Association, told The Business Standard that, “There’s a shortage of courtrooms in the Dhaka judge court. The women and children repression prevention tribunal has nine courts but only five courtrooms are available. They are bound to share the rooms by coordinating the time slots of trial procedures.”

“Even though six years have passed since the emergence of the cyber tribunal that deals with important militant cases, it does not have a separate courtroom. The anti-terrorism tribunal also has the same problem. They depend on others to conduct their cases,” he added.

In the judge court, the authorities are trying to build a footbridge to connect and ease communication between the chief metropolitan magistrate court and the judge court.

The authorities concerned have told The Business Standard that the tender for the footbridge will be announced by the department concerned within 10-15 days.

Justice seeker Shahnaz Parvin Shumi claimed that there is no separate washroom for women. The lady lawyers’ common room has bathrooms, but other people cannot use them. There are some washrooms on different floors at the Dhaka judge court, but those are unusable.

“The toilets on the other floors are not female-friendly at all. Apart from that there are no breastfeeding corners for women who come to court with babies,” she added.