Article
70 needs an amendment
Article 70 of our constitution
can be considered as one of the main obstacle of our democracy. According
to art 70 no member of the ruling party can exercise his democratic
right to dissent even when the government passes an undemocratic law.
Due to this barrier of the constitution the members of the ruling party
fails to express their own opinion and they have to act according to
the choice of their leader. This process undermines the whole spirit
of responsible government and leads to elected dictatorship in Bangladesh.
In the developed country like Britain the member of the ruling party
enjoy enormous power to criticise their government which leads their
parliament to come to a fruitful ending with the free opinion of all
the members. But unfortunately we do not have this tradition. However,
it is true that anti hopping law is salutary from one point of view
since it strengthens the fabric of parliamentary democracy by curbing
unethical and unprincipled political defection. But it would be more
advantageous if this law is only imposed during the time when the cabinet
faces a no confidence or confidence motion. Therefore, article 70 of
the constitution needs amendment from this aspect and all political
party should be united to remove this drawback of our constitution for
the sake of authentic parliamentary democracy.
Putul,
Department of Law, Dhaka University.
Appreciation
to BRAC
Article 77 of the constitution of Bangladesh provides that parliament
may by law establish the office of ombudsman. In 1980, at the initiative
taken by the then Govt., the Jatiya Sangsad passed the necessary act
providing for the establishment of the office of Ombudsman. But the
then Govt. did not put the act into effect. Successive Govt. followed
the same trend. The office of ombudsman has not been establishing through
more than 24 years have been passed since the passing of the Ombudsman
Act. There is no denial of the fact that it is absolutely necessary
to continue to do whatever is possible to control the overt and covert
powers of traditional bureaucracy and to make it accountable to the
people. The Governing Board of BRAC has taken this significant innovative
step in order to enhance its overall governance performance. They appointed
Mr. Manzoorul Karim, former Secretary to the Government of Bangladesh,
as their own Ombudsperson. And he has become the first Ombudsman in
Bangladesh. No impartial (!) judicial inquiry commission, rather the
govt. of Bangladesh has to assign an Ombudsperson and to delegate him
a comprehensive mandate to investigate any incidence of maladministration
and misuse of power, which will include grievances, such as, corruption,
abuse of power or discretion, negligence, oppression, nepotism, rudeness,
arbitrariness, unfairness and discrimination specially in the context
of gender.
Aftab
Ahmed, LL.B.(Hons),final Year, University of Chittagong
Becoming
a lawyer
Setting a lucrative goal of becoming a lawyer is not possible for all.
A lawyer is jurist forever and it is a continuous process. Lawyer called
learned in the society but surprisingly a lot of lawyers, specially
who are practising in the subordinate court like me, are not competent
enough to become the gladiator of establishing law in the society. Being
social engineer a major portion of the lawyers is misguiding the clients
as well as the courts in raw hands that is one of the causes of delaying
of speedy disposal of justice. There are more than five thousands lawyers
are practising in Dhaka Court but you will get only few competent and
efficient trial lawyers. Among the all shorts of practising law, trial
advocacy is tough job and it must be accepted by the lawyer community.
"Lawyering is an art and it can not be availed within short span
of time"-this is a wise saying of the learned senior lawyer of
our community. But in present context the witty lawyers of the modern
world say that lawyering is an art and it must be taught by adequate
training and I do believe that young lawyers should get proper opportunity
through training to competent for transnational practice of law. Bangladesh
need some smoothie and articulate lawyers for the shake of democracy,
rule of law and above all establishing law in the society. It is true
that Bangladesh Bar Council has taken pioneer and vital steps to produce
vision and competent lawyers for the next generation providing few courses
like Bar Vocational Course (BVC) and Intensive Trial Advocacy course,
organise by Legal Education Training Institute, the course duration
of the first one is only for six weeks and second one is only one week
that are not sufficient at all and there is no Appellate Advocacy Training
in Bangladesh. To learn about appellate advocacy young lawyers are to
depend on the learned senior lawyers. I fact the competent, eminent
and witty lawyers are too busy that they have not adequate time to teach
the young lawyers. But they should bear in mind that it is there implied
obligation to this profession is to make astute lawyers and adroit justices
for the this century. Completing the BVC-Batch-8, I should be grateful
to LETI but I have few suggestions to Bangladesh Bar Council and our
learned senior lawyers to fit the young lawyers to uphold the dignity
of the lawyering profession that are given below:
1.An Appellate Advocacy
Training Program should be started as soon as possible.
2.Third class in any public examination should be treated as a disqualification
of becoming a lawyer.
3.Bar Vocational Course may be started after passing advocacy written
examination and advocacy viva voce may be held after completion of BVC.
Mohammed
Mamun Al Feruje, Advocate Dhaka Judge Court.
