The government plans to expand the Supreme Court to help expedite the disposal of cases and remove the existing case congestion.

To accommodate more । chambers and courtrooms for judges the old High Court

I building Is being transferred to | the Supreme Court.

Law Minister Mirza Golam

Hafiz told The Daily Star on I Wednesday that Prime । Minister Khaleda Zia had ' passed an order asking the , Ministry of Defence to vacate the old High Court building | soon.

I Under the plan another floor will be constructed on

i the Supreme Court Bar Association building to ease the congestion problem faced by the Bar members, the Law Minister said

He said as a legacy of nine years of autocratic rule the Supreme Court had in December 1990 a congestion

of 40,000 cases. Over the last ten months this number has been reduced slightly by ensuring speedy disposal of cases. And after the taking over of power by the BNP three new judges have been appointed.

But the number of courts could not be increased in the Supreme Court due to scarcity of space. As and when the Old High Court building will be available for use, the number of judges in the High Court and the Supreme Court divisions of the Supreme Court is likely to be raised to 40. At present the Court has a total of • 25 judges, the Minister said.

If the number of judges |s increased the government will also have to appoint more bench clerks, stenographers and other auxiliary staff to ensure proper running of their courts.

Meanwhile, some problems that surfaced following the abolition of six permanent High Court division benches outside Dhaka city are yet to be solved. Only some furniture of some such courts has been brought to Dhaka.

A large number of nongazetted employees of the

erstwhile permanent High Court benches became surplus when after the Supreme Court verdict declaring the Constitution Eighth Amendment Act as ultra vires of the Constitution", these benches were brought back to Dhaka.

There was also a good number of deputy Attorneys General and Assistant Attorneys General whose services could not be adjusted over the last two years

The septuagenerarian politician who once was a member of the Supreme Court Bar, said that the number of members of the Bar has more than doubled over the last ten years. The number has increased from 500 to about 1200, a Bar Association source told The Daily Star.

Due to shortage of space junior members sometimes do not have space even to sit down. Senior members share rooms. The standard of the court can never improve without cooperation from the members of the Bar, he said.

The Law Minister said that at the fag end of his career his only mission was to strengthen the judiciary with a view to helping the establishment of rule of law in the country. The

remunerations and conditions of service of Judges arc being further improved to attract more talented people to the profession, he said.

He said that the old High Court building which is going to be transferred to the Supreme Court soon has a long history. It was once used as the official residence of the Governor of Bengal and Assam following the 1905 partition of Bengal.

Before that the building used to house an Islamic Intermediate college. There are popular sayings that the official residence of the Governor of Bengal and Assam was shifted from this building to the then Dilkusha House' (Now Bangabhaban) when a Governor's wife had to suffer for 'creating nuisance like dance inside the building’ very near a mazar. 'Dilkusha I louse' a garden villa of the Nawabs of Dhaka, was donated for use as the official residence of the Governor.

The discarded building was later used to house the Dhaka College. It Was transformed into a High Court building after the 1947 partition and the creation of the then province of East Pakistan.