More shifts to clear cases

The Parliamentary Standing Committee of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has recommended a 'double shift' or 'evening shift' in the higher and lower courts to tackle growing number of pending cases.

The committee will work on a draft of a new law to introduce the extra shift in the higher court, the Committee's Chairman Suranjit Sengupta told a press briefing at the Parliament media centre on Monday.

The committee discussed the issue at a meeting on Sunday.

Sengupta said a whopping 2.6 million cases were pending in both higher and lower courts.

"The justice system needs to be restructured to ease the backlog. It is not possible to end the logjam with the existing number of judges," said the ruling Awami League MP.

He cited examples of India's Chennai and West Bengal. "Courts run evening shift in Madras and West Bengal."

Sengupta said no law is required to introduce the system in the lower court, but a law is needed to introduce it in the higher court.

"The committee can draft a law if necessary and send it to the cabinet," he said.

Sengupta said Bangladesh can follow India's system of reappointing retired judges.

He stressed on a salary hike for judges.

"The judges are not administrative officers. They have separate pay scales," he said.

Sengupta said, "What is the problem if the salary of High Court judges are more than that of the President and Prime Minister?"

He said the remuneration of the chief justices in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is much more than in Bangladesh.

Sengupta said bureaucratic hurdles would have to be removed to improve the pay structure in the High Court Division.

"The committee will discuss the issue with those concerned," he said.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee had recommended passage of 'Supreme Court Judges (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill 2014' aiming at raising the allowances of Supreme Court judges by 50 percent, according to a press release of the Parliament Secretariat issued on Sunday.

The bill was placed in Parliament on Mar 18 and then it was sent to the committee for evaluation.