Court orders not being fully implemented

A female teacher in Bagatipara upazila of Natore beat up 42 girl students of her madrasa on January 31 while inquiring into a petty theft.

On May 8, a school kid in Laxmipur was hospitalised being beaten up by a teacher for talking to a fellow student in an exam hall.

The teacher involved in the first incident was suspended while the other only apologised through mediation.

Incidents of this type keep taking place although the High Court five years ago slapped a ban on corporal punishment at educational institutions following a public interest litigation (PIL).

The court also directed the authorities concerned to ensure monitoring, investigation and teachers' training, among other things, to stop recurrence of corporal punishment. 

Like several directives in this case, many more on different issues are also not being fully implemented due to lack of willingness of the government, proper monitoring and public awareness, experts said at a programme yesterday.

The citizens are not getting expected benefits from these directives which the courts issued to ensure people's rights, they added.

Rights organisations Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) and Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) jointly organised the “National Access to Justice Conference” on “Implementation of Public Interest Litigation: Challenges and Opportunities” at Cirdap auditorium in association with Community Legal Services programme.

Sara Hossain, honorary executive director of BLAST, said the High Court in 2011 declared corporal punishment illegal at all educational institutions. The education ministry the same year issued guidelines to stop this punishment.

“There has been a positive change following the HC judgment as well as the ministry guidelines and action, but full implementation of the directives would have made the situation far better,” she later told The Daily Star.   

At the programme, she said, “Authorities on several occasions initiated investigation into such incidents, but we don't know what actually happened after the probe report submission.”

She added that there is no centralised mechanism to oversee the issue.

Besides, there has to be a change in the public mindset as many believe corporal punishment is necessary for improvement of students. 

Sara Hossain observed several of the HC directives regarding inhuman torture of women -- in the name of punishment for social misconduct -- by issuing fatwa (religious edict) were not implemented properly. She, however, said the number of such incidents has decreased. 

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, executive director of BELA, pointed to the non-implementation of some HC directives on ship-breaking industries. Salma Ali, executive director of BNELA, talked about the poor implementation of HC directives regarding sexual harassment of women.

Referring to the cases of corporal punishment and ship-breaking industry, Justice Md Imman Ali, a judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, said, “We have done our part. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court can only work within the periphery of the court itself.... We have little to do after delivering the judgment. Then you, the lawyers, have to work.”

He said the lawyers involved in those cases have to oversee whether the court directives were implemented and if not, they can seek contempt proceedings against the authorities concerned and then the court can take action.

Justice Imman Ali said directives regarding Bidi workers, stalking or sexual harassment of women and domestic workers were also not implemented.

Eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain said for the last several years, many public interest litigations were filed but non-implementation of the directives is a “matter of concern.”

The lawyers should draw the court's attention to the issues and the court also has a responsibility to look into the matters so that its directives are implemented, he said.

Dr Kamal stressed the need for public awareness about the directives and putting pressure on the authorities concerned through democratic process.

Noted rights activist Sultana Kamal said that in the absence of a culture of accountability, directives remained unimplemented.

He said directives on the ship-breaking industry are not implemented as interests of influential people are involved with the sector.

Many directives related to saving the rivers surrounding Dhaka, clearing footpaths, tannery relocation from the capital, arbitrary arrest and detention by law enforcers under section 54 of CrPC remained unimplemented, lawyers told The Daily Star.

The High Court has so far issued directives in around 500 public interest cases since the independence, but many of them were not properly implemented for different reasons including lack of government monitoring and shortage of resources, legal experts told this newspaper.

Justice Nizamul Huq of Appellate Division of the SC,  Jerome Sayre, team leader of Community Legal Services; SC lawyer  Idrisur Rahman, Md Rafiquzzaman, governance adviser of DFID Bangladesh; Humayun Khalid, secretary of primary and mass education ministry, among others, addressed the programme.