By Mahmudul Hasan Raju

DHAKA, Dec 7, 2023 (BSS) - The present government in last five years put emphasis on developing country's judicial infrastructure, raising modern buildings to accommodate courtrooms, district registry and sub-registry offices and bar council buildings and launching different technologies to serve cost effective and speedy legal assistance.

"Country's judiciary has been witnessing multidimensional development under the guidance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and I hope the new 'Smart Bangladesh' will also have a smart judiciary," Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq told BSS.

With an aim of expanding the existing infrastructure of Bangladesh Supreme Court, the government recently built a modern 12-storied building having all necessary facilities.

"The project, which was launched in 2017, has already been completed at a cost of Taka 142.43 crore. We have successfully completed the "Feasibility Study of Digitization of Land Registration Management (Revised)" project at a cost of Taka 1.6 crore," Law ministry spokesperson Dr Md Rezaul Karim said.

The ministry sources further said the government has adopted a plan to build Neykunjo (resting place for the justice seekers) at all the district and sessions judge courts across the country. Initiated in April, 2023, at a cost of Taka 35.25 crore, the project is due to be completed by June, 2025.

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last month inaugurated the newly-constructed building of Bangladesh Bar Council in the capital. The 15-floor modern building was built at a cost of Taka 138 crore having adequate office space, meeting room, two conference rooms, record room, store room, waiting area, cafeteria, day-care centre, exhibition space, registration room, bank, accounts section and IT section, among other facilities," Dr Karim added.

Built under the supervision of Law and Justice Division and designed by Department of Architecture, the building has five tribunal rooms, multipurpose hall and separate prayers room, an official release said. 

More than hundred lawyers will be able to live in the building having TV lounge, kitchen and dining hall.

Apart from these, the work of "Construction of Chief Judicial Magistrate Court Buildings (1st Phase) (3rd revised) in 64 Districts" project is nearing end, with an actual progress of 96 percent. The project is taking place at an estimated cost of Taka 2,260 crore. 

Second phase of 2nd revised project to build district registry and sub-registry offices in different districts is also scheduled to be completed very soon. With an actual progress of more than 90 percent so far, the project is taking place at an estimated cost of Taka 366 crore.

Work of another project titled "Strengthening Capacity of Judicial System for Child Protection in Bangladesh" is also going on at an estimated cost of Taka nine crore.

The work of "Capacity Enhancement of Law and Justice Division (revised) for Strengthening Subordinate Court Management" project is taking place at an estimated cost of Taka 45.97 crore. The ministry however, couldn't complete the project in time due to Covid-19 pandemic. 

Another project received approval very recently to build a record building for Supreme Court. The project is scheduled to be completed by June 30, 2026 with at an estimated cost of Taka 279.41 crore. 

Not only construction of infrastructures, country's judiciary has been witnessing massive progress in terms of digitization also. 

"For last couple of years, country's judiciary including the Supreme Court is seeing massive digitization. It is essential to utilize information technology to continue the rule of law and right to get justice," Law Minister Anisul Huq said.

We had launched 'Amar Bhasha' software, Digital Archiving and E-filing, around two years ago. Recently we launched Supreme Court Mediation Centre and nine court technologies invented by the Supreme Court, he added.

Technologies like, platform for submitting annual confidential report online, platform for discussing law by the judges of the district courts, Frequently Asked Questions, Supreme Court Mobile App, Appellate Division Entree Pass, Appellate Division Digital Copy Branch, Online Reporting Tools of Monitoring Committee, Publishing Order and Judgment of Lower Court Online and Entree Platform of Children Court's Report were launched recently.

"We would not be able to get the trust of the young generation if we continue with the conventional judiciary. Considering the importance of the matter, we have taken up e-judiciary, the biggest plan of country's judiciary, project under the active guidance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. We believe, through implementation of this project, there would be a transformative change in serving cost effective, speedy and transparent legal assistance to justice seekers," the minister further said.