The government introduced a bill in the Jatiya Sangsad yesterday to set up courts for speedy recovery of long pending bad loans.

State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Shahjahan Omar piloted the Artho Rin Adalat Bill 2003 proposing repeal of a similar Act passed in 1990.

The House was told that bad loans in the country amounted to Tk 35,000 crore till date.

Opposition lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta opposed placing of the bill, saying there should have been debate on it in a special committee. He suggested formation of a special committee to allow opposition members to debate it.

But the minister in charge said the previous law was not enough to deal with bad loans. "Passage of this law will enable the country to have a healthy economy by eliminating the unhealthy practice of defaulting on loan," Shahjahan said.

The opposition objection was rejected by voice vote.

The bill proposed formation of several Artha Rin Adalats in each district or one for several districts, whichever is convenient.

The Artha Rin Adalat will dispose of a case within 90 days after submission of written reply by the accused. However, the court may get another 30 days if there is 'proper reasons'. The court will not accept any written reply from the accused after 40 days of his or her presence in the court, and settle the issue unilaterally.

However, the court can extend the time limit by 20 more days on condition that the accused has to bear a cost between Tk 2,000 and Tk 5,000.

The government will appoint judges for the Artha Rinm Adalat from among deputy district judges after consultation with the Supreme Court.

The court can also dispose of a case through 'camera settlement conference' where both the parties and their lawyers will be present. However, the judge can not press the parties to accept his or her proposal at such conferences, the bill said.

According to the proposed law, financial institutions will not file any case with the Artha Rin Adalat without selling off the mortgaged properties of the accused on which it has legal control. The financial institutions will have to adjust the amount realised from selling the mortgaged properties with the loan.

However, if any financial institution files any case without selling the mortgaged properties, it would have to sell those as soon as it files the case.

The plaintiff and the accused, if they depend on documents which are not under their possession, they can submit a list of the docu-

ments with names and addresses of the people who posses those.

Both the plaintiff and accused will have to submit affidavit with the written prayer and reply. The affidavits and written submissions will be treated as documentary evidences.