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Govt moves to recast Law Commission

Top posts of the body remain vacant for long

Ashutosh Sarkar
The government has taken an initiative to recast the Law Commission for bringing it back from the brink of extinction following retirement of its remaining lone member and Chairman Justice Md Sirajul Islam.
Formed in 1996 to help modernise the country's law and judicial system, the commission now is a dysfunctional institution as its topmost positions—chairman and two members— - remain vacant.
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday told The Daily Star the government has taken steps to fill the positions of the Law Commission to make it functional. Former Judge of the High Court Justice MA Rashid will be appointed chairman of the commission while its two members will be appointed after consultation with the chairman, the minister said.
Shafique also mentioned that he has already signed the documents regarding the appointment of Justice MA Rashid and sent it to the Prime Minister's Office to forward it to the president for final approval of the appointment.
He hoped that the appointment of the chairman would be completed in next week.
The law commission has been inactive due to shortage of manpower and logistic supports foralongtime. It had recommended about 200 new laws and amendments since its inception in 1996, but only three/four were adopted during the Awami League government while BNP-led 4-party government completely disregarded the recommendations throughout its tenure.
Although the commission was formed tohelp modernise the law’s and'th’c judici.il system, tile BNP-led government neither accepted a single recommendation nor sought its expert advice while passing 185 lawsduringits tenure.
The Law Commission Amendment Act 2001 made it mandatory for the parliament to place a report on implementation of the Law Commission's recommendations before its first
session every year. Even that was not followed, a commission high official had told The Daily Star earlier. Such utter disregard for the law sprang from a lack of political will, sources said.
Presently no official task is being done at the commission office as it has no guardian or authority, sources said, adding after losing the only guardian the remaining few officials are also now concerned about the eXis* tenceof the law commission.
The position of the commission’s chairman has remained vacant since December 5, 2007 when the then chairman Justice Mustafa Kamal’s term expired.
Another member of the commission retired on February 22 lastyear but the government did not take initiative to fill the
vacant post. Justice Md Sirajul Islam has gone on retirement on March 8 this year.
Apart from the two key positions, ten official posts of the commission out of 13. including the chief research officer, two senior research officers and two translation officers have remained vacant for the past nine months.
The officials of the commission’are taken on deputation from the judicial cadres, sources said.
The areas in the close proximity to the commission office located on the Old High Court premises are so appalling that these new officials soon after their joining begin to look for better opportunities elsewhere.