Directing lower court judges to work with honesty, sincerity and punctuality, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday said the huge backlog of pending cases and long delays in their disposal are a big hurdle to justice.

“There are 27 lakh cases pending with lower courts across the country, and this burden of undisposed cases can slow down the management of the courts and might increase the cost of case disposal. For this, people might be discouraged to take their disputes before the courts and be encouraged to get favourable solutions through extrajudicial means or muscle power. In such a situation, people's faith in the rule of law may decrease, and impatience and violence may rise in the society,” he said.

The CJ made the remarks while speaking as chief guest at the inauguration of the last day's sessions of the two-day national judicial conference at the Supreme Court auditorium.

“We must get rid of the incurable disease of case backlog. For that you [lower court judges] have to abandon the culture of wasting time unnecessarily. Courts must spend all the work hours on judicial activities,” Justice Sinha said.

Sometimes some judges do not sit in courtrooms after lunch, which is unacceptable, he said, adding that cases must be included in the cause list in such a way that the court can remain active for all of its time.

 “Some district judges and their subordinates live in Dhaka with their families. A few of them leave for Dhaka after lunch on Thursdays and return to their workplaces after lunch on Sundays. Some district judges travel by government vehicles outside the district without permission from the authorities. Some district judges use the cars of other courts for this purpose. Cars of some district judges working outside Dhaka can often be seen here. These are not acceptable at all.”     

Justice Sinha said he was shocked to learn that some district judges and chief judicial magistrates were locked into conflicts over personal matters, adversely affecting the districts' judicial system.

Judges of the Appellate and the High Court divisions, who presided over different sessions of the conference, asked the lower court judges to discharge their duties with honesty, competence, transparency and neutrality to ensure justice and quick disposal of cases.

They also instructed the lower court judges to properly follow the rules while granting bails and comply with the High Court guidelines for disposing cases filed under the women and children repression prevention law.

Justice Ashfaqul Islam of the HC expressed surprise when he heard that in Kishoreganj there is only one judge for disposing of around 40,000 land survey-related cases. In Mymensingh, a single judge is dealing with 30,000 such cases.

Justice M Enayetur Rahim, an HC judge and also chairman of the SC Legal Aid Committee, told the lower court judges that the government started providing legal aid for the poor in every district, though the service is limited due to manpower shortages.

As assistant judges, who are in charge of the district legal aid office, they have also to perform judicial activities, he said, adding that there was no peon in any of the district legal aid offices. 

The SC Legal Aid office has a peon, but his salary comes from an NGO, Justice Enayetur said.

He hoped that all NGOs would work for providing legal aid to the poor.

Judges of the Appellate Division Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice M Imman Ali, and Justice Quamsrul Islam Siddique of the HC Division, also presided over different sessions of the conference.