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All the political parties on Monday agreed to set up civil and criminal courts at the upazila level in phases.

The consensus was made in the day’s session of the National Consensus Commission’s second-round dialogue, presided over by NCC vice chair Professor Ali Riaz, at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.

Though most of the 30 participating parties agreed on amending the constitution’s sub-articles regarding the proclamation of emergency, the NCC deferred discussion on the issue for the next session.

The NCC deferred the discussion when some parties including the National Citizen Party demanded detailing the potential amendment and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party opined that the detailed discussion should be held in the next parliament.

The Monday’s session began with Professor Riaz’s briefing on the Judiciary Reform Commission-proposed decentralisation of the lower judiciary.

The reform commission proposed the establishment of permanent courts at the upazila level under senior assistant judges or an equivalent to first-class magistrates, taking into account the geographical location and features of the upazila headquarters, distance from the district headquarters, communication facilities, population density and the volume of cases.

Expansion of legal aid services at the upazila level was also proposed while retaining the existing circuit courts.

As part of administrative reforms in 1982, military dictator HM Ershad expanded lower courts to upazilas. However, the courts were abolished in 1991, months after his fall in December 1990.

Given feedback from the attendees, Riaz said, ‘All the parties have reached a consensus on establishing upazila-level courts in phases with recommendations.’

Among the recommendations were the exclusion of the sadar upazilas, the upazilas very close to sadar upazilas and those already having circuit courts from the list, renovation of the existing circuit courts, a promise for budgetary allocation and logistical support for the new courts, and expansion of legal aid services at upazilas, Riaz added.

The consensus-based recommendations were mostly matched with the suggestions that came from Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed, who is leading the party delegation at the NCC dialogue.

‘In principle, BNP supports the expansion of the lower judiciary,’ Salahuddin said.

Earlier, several parties, including the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Liberal Democratic Party, Ganosamhati Andolan, National Citizen Party, Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh, Khelafat Majlish, Socialist Party of Bangladesh and Gano Adhikar Parishad supported the expansion of the lower judiciary.

Some recommended establishing anti-harassment or anti-corruption cells at the upazila-level courts to check any further spike of new cases and false complaints influenced by brokers.

Delegates from the Jatiyatabadi Samamana Dal, Labour Party of Bangladesh and Gano Forum, however, expressed their concerns about the misuse of the expansion of the lower judiciary.

The second agenda of the Monday’s session addressed reforms to sub-articles of the constitution’s article 141.

The existing article 141(A) allows the president to issue a proclamation of emergency for 120 days if he is convinced that the security or economic life of the country, or any part of it, is under threat due to war, external aggression, or internal disturbance.

The NCC placed a reform proposal, suggesting that the president can issue a proclamation of emergency for 90 days if he is convinced that the security or economic life of the country, or any part of it, is under threat due to war, external aggression, or internal rebellion.

Instead of the existing provision that binds such a proclamation, which must be validated by the prime minister, the reform proposal recommended written approval by the cabinet and be presented before the parliament within 30 days of the emergency period.

The existing article 141(B) states that while a proclamation of emergency is in effect, the state is not bound by the restrictions of articles guarding citizens’ freedom of association, movement, assembly, thought, profession and right to property. The sub-article also allows the state to enact laws or take executive actions that would otherwise be limited by the fundamental rights outlined in the third part of the constitution.

The proposal for reforming the sub-article said that while a proclamation of emergency is in effect, the state is not bound by the restrictions and may take executive actions but shall not violate the provision of equality of all before the law, obstruct the right to practice religion, freedom of thoughts and deviate from the obligation to protect the right to life.

The existing sub-article 141(c) says that the president, during a state of emergency,  can suspend the right to move any court for enforcing certain fundamental rights, as well as to suspend any ongoing court proceedings related to those rights for the duration of the emergency.

The NCC-proposed reform of the sub-article says that the right to move any court for enforcing certain fundamental rights cannot be postponed during the emergency period. 

The NCC also proposed two additional sub-articles, saying that the state’s humanitarian laws aligned to international charters shall not be violated during an emergency period and there shall be a monitoring committee comprising ruling and opposition lawmakers and a human rights activist.

The parties considered the proposals to ensure that emergency powers are exercised with greater transparency, legal oversight and protection of fundamental rights.

They suggested that emergency powers should not be misused for political gains.

The NCC presented the new reform proposal on Monday as the Constitution Reform Commission-proposed National Constitutional Council with the power to declare an emergency was cancelled by a majority of the parties.

Jamaat’s assistant secretary general Hamidur Rahman Azad suggested a parliamentary committee to oversee emergency declarations.

BNP›s Salahuddin Ahmed advocated for detailed discussion in the next parliament and proposed that emergencies be geographically specific, particularly during natural disasters or internal unrest like that in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

NCP›s Javed Rasid emphasised that fundamental rights must not be compromised, even in a crisis.

NCP member secretary Akhter Hossain heavily criticised the idea of repeatedly referring issues to parliament.

He demanded that the final decision on reforms should be taken in the very NCC dialogue.

The dialogue will resume on Thursday.