All the 53 benches of the High Court (HC) resumed virtually on Sunday (June 20), while physical functioning of lower courts and tribunals across the country also re-opened on the same day.
Most of the HC benches have remained closed since April 5 when the government had declared restriction on movement of people following the spread of the second wave of Covid-19.
However, the adjournment on anticipatory bail hearing will continue until the further decision. Hearing on the anticipatory bail petitions has been adjourned since the courts had been running on a limited scale from April. In that time, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain had asked the virtual HC benches not to hear petitions of anticipatory bail seekers.
Earlier on June 17, the chief justice decided to run all the 53 HC benches from Sunday to virtually hear and dispose of urgent cases, except for anticipatory bail petitions. The chief justice constituted the 53 benches with 86 judges assigning their jurisdictions.
Registrar General of Supreme Court Md Ali Akbar confirmed the matter. He said that the HC benches were asked to conduct judicial function using information technology and following ‘practice directions’ in virtual presence of lawyers, officials and others concerned.
Earlier, the chief justice kept only 30 benches of the higher court operating in different phases virtually to hear urgent matters during the Covid-19 pandemic.
On June 19, the chief justice also decided to resume physical functioning of lower courts and tribunals from the same day (June 20). On June 10, he reopened some lower courts for hearing civil cases in person.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin expressed satisfaction for re-opening all the HC benches virtually after 77 days of their closure and resuming the lower courts considering the interest of justice seekers. He said that it was public demand that the courts would remain operating all time.
Secretary of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kazal also expressed satisfaction for re-opening the HC benches and the physical functioning of lower courts. He, however, demanded that the chief justice would return the jurisdiction of the High Court to hold hearing on anticipatory bail.
The SCBA secretary said that anticipatory bail hearing would be required as many criminal cases are filed every day in the country. Most of them are fabricated and controversial. Thousands of people are made accused in these cases only to harass them and the people are prosecuted by the police in the fabricated cases. These accused will face more harassment by the law enforcers as anticipatory bail hearing remains stoped, he added.
