Govt working to reform civil code, bolster mediations to fast-track case disposals

Law minister Anisul Huq on Tuesday revealed that the government is working to speed up civil case disposals by strengthening out-of-court settlement mechanisms and updating the civil case procedures of 1908.

He was speaking at the launching of a Japan-backed project titled “Development of Mediation and Civil Litigation Practices for Enhancement to Access to Justice” at a Dhaka hotel.

The project, with financial and technical assistance from JAICA, would provide trainings to local judges, state-sanctioned legal mediators and legal aid officers on modern out-court-settlement procedures for civil offences through efficient mediation efforts.

Awareness campaigns would be conducted under the project to sensitise people in the remotest corners of the country about the benefits of out-of-court mediations through experts.

By bolstering mediation efforts through state-sanctioned mediators, the project would seek to ease people’s access to legal services, while also identify issues that are delaying disposal of civil cases at different courts across the country, Anisul said. Through these efforts, case backlogs would be gradually reduced, he hinted.

The project would also seek to modernise the existing case management system.

The project will be piloted in Noakhali and Cumilla districts. Workshops for training judges, mediators and legal aid officers would be conducted in both Bangladesh and Japan, the law minister said.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dreamt of building a society of equity and justice, and his daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working to realise the vision.

Sheikh Hasina’s government has established offices of legal aid officers across the country, launched government-funded legal advisory services and bolstered mediation efforts, among others to help establish the rule of law, ensure basic human rights and establish a society of equality and justice.