Chief justice bemoans obsolete colonial-era laws in Bangladesh

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has lamented that most of the archaic colonial-era laws have been ‘tweaked’ to put into effect in Bangladesh.

He says these laws from the British era have ‘lost their originality’ and become ‘obsolete in the age of digitalisation’.
 
Sinha’s observation came on Tuesday during an open discussion at a seminar organised by the National Board of Revenue in Dhaka.
 
“Someone has asked a really good question about our current laws. This has been answered. But I support the person who asked the question 100 percent,” he said regarding the query made during the discussion.
 
“Our laws and judiciary are working based on the legislations made in 1872. These outdated, rusty laws have no originality anymore after having been tweaked so much.”
 
“I say this everywhere that 60-70 percent of our procedural law is obsolete. We talk about digitalisation in this 21st century, but all our laws are obsolete,” he said.
 
“These obsolete laws don’t work in the age of digitalisation.”
 
He also sought suggestion from the officials of the executive branch in the updating of the laws.
 
The chief justice emphasised strengthening the Law Commission for amending the laws and hoped Parliament would do a neat job in making new laws.
 
He said, “Sometimes amendments are done before all laws on customs, VAT, civil and criminal matters are even come into effect. We get lost amidst all these amendments.”