THE number of cases pending with the courts has reached a little more than 4.33 million as of March. Subordinate courts have about 3.69 million cases pending, the High Court Division of the Supreme Court 599,000 cases pending and the Appellate Division 34,926 cases, as 抖阴精品 reported on August 10. There were about 4.05 million cases, keeping to Supreme Court records, pending with courts as of September 2023. The huge number of cases pending with both the High Court Division and the Appellate Division, which have showed a steady increase in pending matters, suggests the proposition could hamper the judicial reforms that the interim government is trying to effect. The backlog of cases has grown although fewer cases have been filed in the year. The broad picture, therefore, suggests that the higher judiciary keeps facing strain where caseload outpaces the case disposal rate, especially in the High Court Division, despite initiatives that have been taken to improve the efficiency of the judicial system. Experts believe that without effective measures to improve on the situation, legal delay may continue, affecting he justice delivery system and people鈥檚 access to justice.
The Supreme Court Bar Association president puts the factor that has added to such a huge backlog of cases down to the political changeover in 2024, which affected the disposal of cases. The shortage of judges also been blamed for long delays, for which justice-seekers continue to suffer. The High Court鈥檚 registrar also subscribes to what the bar association president has said as a major reason for the decline in the case disposal rate. A number of High Court judges were sent on leave pending the investigation of misconduct and six Appellate Division judges resigned in the changed political context after the fall of the Awami League government in an uprising in July鈥揂ugust 2024. The High Court鈥檚 registrar, however, says that the implementation of the judicial reforms that the interim government has initiated based on the recommendation of the judicial reforms commission would take time. But when the Supreme Court has initiated multiple reform initiatives, such as digitisation, improvement in case management and judicial staffing, such a persistent increase in the number of pending cases, especially with criminal cases and writ petitions, suggests some structural challenges for the authorities to attend to that go beyond mere administrative tweaks. Experts say that if issues such as judicial vacancies, procedural delays and systemic inefficiencies are not properly attended to in a coordinated manner, it is difficult to deal with the case backlog.
All relevant authorities should therefore put in further efforts to resolve the issue to ensure people鈥檚 timely access to justice.
