"Justice delayed is justice denied" is an oft-repeated legal maxim. There could be many reasons, including the ones created deliberately, for the delay in the dispensation of justice. The litigants in this country are very much familiar with the causes of intentional delays. In most cases, a section of dishonest court officials and unscrupulous lawyers are involved in such mischievous activities, primarily designed to milk the litigants up to the maximum.
One other major reason --- the shortage of judicial officers and judges-- has been a perennial source of sufferings for the people seeking justice in the country's courts. Volumes have been said and written about this particular problem over the years but the situation has remained almost unchanged. A wire service report, published in this paper last Monday, is a pointer to that fact. Two courts in the port city of Chittagong --- the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court and the Chittagong District Sessions Judge's Court --- together have nearly 0.18 million
pending cases.
The two Session Judges of the above-mentioned courts, reportedly, went into retirement --- one on June 10 and another on July 11 last. But their replacements are yet to take over. Moreover, 13 posts of judicial officers under the control of these two courts have been lying vacant for long, creating a huge backlog of cases. A top official of the Chittagong Bar Association met the law minister last May to help resolve the problem arising out of the shortage of judges in the lower courts but to no avail.
However, the problem encountered by the two Chittagong courts is nothing unique. Both lower and higher courts of the country for long have been suffering from shortage of judicial officers and judges. However, the situation in the case of lower courts is worse than that of higher courts. The ultimate sufferers due to such shortage are the litigants who have to shuttle between courts and lawyers' chambers for year after year and spend lots of money without any results. Their sufferings are either for shortage of judges or deceitful activities of an unscrupulous section of lawyers and court officials.
It is hard to understand as to why the government is so reluctant to recruit sufficient number of judicial officers for lower courts. Through the Public Service Commission (PSC), the government does recruit officials for different cadre services every year. At times doctors and judicial officers are also recruited through special BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) examinations. Recently, more than 6,000 doctors have been recruited for appointment at various government health facilities at the grassroots level. Such recruitment process can also be followed in the case of judicial officials for the lower courts. However, there should not be any compromise with the quality of manpower while making such recruitment for the judiciary needs people with utmost integrity and
honesty.
Shortage of judicial officers and litigants\\\' sufferings
FE Team | Published: August 29, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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