Staff Reporter:
Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed yesterday said the country’s judiciary has embarked on a new journey after the July mass uprising, and the people will regain their lost trust in the judiciary.
“The proactivity of the interim government has made it possible to formulate an ordinance for the ap-pointment of apex court judges in the shortest possible time. The Supreme Court and the interim gov-ernment are working closely for the successful implementation of the roadmap for judicial reform. In particular, the Law Ministry has made significant progress in creating a separate secretariat for the judi-ciary,” he said while addressing a regional seminar at a hotel in Khulna.
Organized jointly by the Supreme Court and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the seminar titled “Judicial Independence and Efficiency in Bangladesh” was presided over by High Court Justice Mohammad Ali and was addressed by UNDP Resident Representative Stefan Liller, European Union Ambassador & Head of Delegation in Bangladesh Michael Miller, and Swedish Ambassador Ni-colas Weeks, among others, a Supreme Court release said here yesterday.
Thanking the interim government for different initiatives for the betterment of the judiciary, the chief justice further said recently, with the sincere cooperation of the government, a significant number of posts of the judges have been created at various levels, which will play an important role in resolving the backlog of cases in the near future. In addition, the initial work of establishing a specialized commercial court has already been completed, he added.
Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed also stated that two special committees are working to initiate the op-eration of the Supreme Court Research Institute in Cox’s Bazar soon.
The Chief Justice mentioned that various important issues have emerged from the seminars held at the divisional level of the country and that the work of preparing a strategic plan for the overall moderniza-tion of the judiciary will soon be started by incorporating the opinions of the seminars.
At the time, he expressed optimism that through the successful implementation of the strategic plan for the modernization of the judiciary, the new journey that the judiciary has started after the July mass up-rising will be completed and the people will regain their lost trust in the judiciary.
UNDP Resident Representative Stefan Liller, in his speech, termed the roadmap declared by the chief justice, for the institutionalization of the country’s judiciary and judicial reform, a timely step.
He also assured to remain beside Bangladesh as the development partner in the modernization of the ju-diciary.
A good number of judicial officials from Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat joined the seminar, alongside the lawyers of the district.
