Thirty-eight lower court judges will receive a two-week-long higher training from the National Judicial Academy, India, from January 5 to 19 next year in order to enhance their competence and knowledge.

The Law Ministry today issued a notice to this effect saying that the 38 lower court judges ranking from assistant judge, senior assistant judge, metropolitan magistrate and senior judicial magistrate have been allowed to go to India for the training on consent from the Supreme Court.

Contacted, Bikash Kumar Saha, joint secretary to the law ministry, told The Daily Star that the government and the SC have jointly taken an initiative to send all around 1,500 lower court judges of the country to India in phases for higher training in order to enhance their competence and knowledge.

As part of the initiative, 83 lower court judges have already received training from the National Judicial Academy, India, he said.

National Judicial Academy of India, situated in Bhopal of Madhya Pradesh, provides the training through their experts concerned, he said, adding that the training will be given on different issues including criminal and civil laws, money laundering and cyber crime.

Bikash Kumar Saha also said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the authorities concerned of Bangladesh Supreme Court and National Judicial Academy of India earlier this year to this effect.

According to the MoU, the Indian government will bear all the expenses for providing training to the lower court judges of Bangladesh, he added.