A special tribunal tasked with the job of trying cases of share scams couldn't commence trial even more than a year after its formation.
Critics say such an inordinate delay undermines the government move to quickly dispose of the stock-related cases and restore the investors' confidence in stock market.
The start-up delay in judicial function, according to experts, is resulting in the piling up of stock market-related cases with different courts, thus further affecting the confidence of general investors.
As per information available with the securities regulator, the number of such pending cases has already crossed 500.
"The tribunal could reinforce the investors' confidence. But, despite its formation, the delay in beginning judicial function, unfortunately, appeared as a new cause to affect it (confidence)," said Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid, chairman of Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE).
"Lack of confidence is a big problem with the capital market," he told the FE.
The government formed the special tribunal through a gazette on January 2, 2014 after amendment to relevant provisions of the Securities and Exchange Ordinance (SEO) 1969 in late 2012.
The initiative was basically taken under the Capital Market Development Programme funded by a manila-based development financier that pushed for a number of reforms, including establishment of the tribunal, in the sector.
On February 24 last year, the tribunal got a judge appointed to try the share-trading offenders and scamsters in its dock.
Around six and a half months after the gazette notification, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) rented a space at a building in the city on July 13, 2014 to house this special court.
Since then, informed circles said, the authority is counting around Tk 142,000 per month as rent for the 3,017-square-foot space, including veranda, without any visible outcome.
After about six months, the tribunal judge assumed his office at the rented place, with its courtroom incomplete, on the 9th floor at Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) building at Purana Paltan in the city on January 19 this year.
During visit by this scribe on several occasions in the last couple of months, progress in preparing the tribunal office, including interior decoration, was apparently found stagnant as no labourer was seen working there.
When contacted for comment in this regard, an official introducing himself as personal assistant to the judge referred to the BSEC for any information about the tribunal.
BSEC spokesperson and executive director Mohammad Saifur Rahman earlier had cited proper maintaining of public procurement rules as the cause of the delay in setting up and equipping the tribunal with necessary infrastructure and logistics.
"We cannot do the work like purchase of materials required for the tribunal without properly following the public procurement rules," Mr Rahman told the FE.
"Following all the required procurement criteria is taking time," he said. "After that, we are trying our best to make the tribunal fully ready as soon as possible."
Disagreeing with his argument, Mr Mazid, also former revenue board chairman, said: "Such long delay is not usual. Much lower time than that of the delay is supposed to be taken even after duly following the public procurement rules."
He adds: "It seems that there is 'lack of willingness and unwillingness' behind the delay."
With the Special Tribunal laid incomplete, the number of capital market-related cases pending with different courts is on the rise, raising concern among the share-market investors and other stakeholders, sources said.
As per information available with the regulator, the number of total pending cases -- both civil and criminal -- already crossed 500. The backlog was with only 52 cases as of June 1999.
Most importantly, 15 criminal cases filed against suspected manipulators involved in the 1996 share-market debacle and two more such cases lodged on the 2010 scam still remained unsettled.
However, Advocate Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, who dealt with the 1996 share-scam case on behalf of an alleged scamster, told the FE, "It cannot be said that the setting up of the special tribunal will result in complete solution to the problem of slow disposal of the stock-market cases."
"Because, all the procedures regarding such cases are taking place under the relevant existing legal provisions," he said. "It's a legal and technical matter."
"The suspected scamsters are very influential and well-off. As such, they avail all possible legal rights, having the cases stayed many times and finally delaying the disposal of such cases," said Supreme Court (SC) lawyer Probir Neogi, a BSEC counsel.
Mr Neogi also proposed the formation of a special High Court bench to hear and dispose of only capital-market cases to ease the longstanding problem.
Khandkar Ibrahim Khaled, head of the body formed to investigate the 2010 bourse scandals, recently said that most of the persons involved in the scams 'go scot-free because of their influence on politics and economy'.
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