Jamaat-e-Islami has agreed to the National Consensus Commission’s proposal to decentralise the lower courts by moving them to the upazila level to bring the justice system closer to the people.
Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Hamidur Rahman Azad disclosed the decision while talking to journalists during a break on the 10th day of the second round of meetings between the commission and political parties at the Foreign Service Academy’s Doel Hall in Dhaka on Monday.
“Jamaat has agreed with the commission’s proposal to decentralise the lower judiciary, that is, to bring the lower courts from the district level to the upazila level. We have expressed our support for their proposal.”
Azad also said if a citizen living in an upazila seeks justice, they have to overcome significant communication challenges to reach the district. So, there’s an economic aspect to this. Distance and time are also factors.
“There are 495 upazilas in Bangladesh. Some of them already have court benches under the Constitution. We’ve proposed that, gradually, courts should be established in all upazilas and these existing benches be transformed into permanent courts,” he continued.
“We have agreed in principle that the justice system must reach people’s doorsteps in the public interest. However, another issue raised was that if the judiciary is taken to the grassroots level, corruption might increase.”
The broker syndicate in our country may collaborate with people involved in the legal process or mislead people with false promises. This concern was brought up during the discussion.”
The topic of village courts also came up in the discussion, Azad said, adding: “There are some limitations in village courts, and we spoke about making them more effective. For instance, currently, they can impose fines up to Tk 75,000. We suggested slightly increasing their jurisdiction.”