For the first time in Bangladesh’s history, the government has fully separated civil and criminal courts. This change is expected to save time in case management and significantly increase the rate of case disposal in both civil and criminal courts.
The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs issued a notification in this regard on Thursday.
Previously, judges at the district courts, including joint district judges, additional district judges, and district judges, were responsible for hearing both civil and criminal cases. This dual responsibility was one of the main causes of case backlog and judicial delays.
Currently, there are nearly 1.6 million civil cases and about 2.3 million criminal cases pending in lower courts. Despite the higher number of criminal cases, judges had to handle both types of cases, which slowed down the pace of case disposal and increased the backlog.
To address this issue, Thursday’s notification established 203 additional criminal courts and 367 joint criminal courts, where judges will handle only criminal cases.
This move will eliminate the dual responsibility of judges and is expected to speed up the judicial process.
As a result of this landmark decision, civil and criminal courts at the district level will now operate separately. The separation is expected to significantly increase the rate and speed of case disposal in both civil and criminal courts, thereby reducing the existing case backlog.
