Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim at a seminar here yesterday urged all concerned to play an active role to help implement alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for speedy justice.

He was addressing a seminar titled 'Enforcing court-sponsored ADR in Bangladesh: Need for strengthening legislative, administrative and institutional measures'.

Bangladesh Law Commission organised the seminar in cooperation with South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS) at Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCCI) conference room.

Mentioning that the courts are overburdened with cases, chief justice emphasised the need for implementing ADR to facilitate people with better access to justice and relieve them of prolonged trial procedures.

He also urged the judges, lawyers and

the others concerned to discourage filing of cases that can be settled through mediation and arbitration while ensuring justice.

In this regard he said, "Before appearing or conducting any case we should ask ourselves whether our acts will have any positive impact on the society or not."

He also asked all to judge the impact of cases on the society instead of taking them as a way of earning.

Law Commission Chairman Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid presided over the seminar participated by judges, lawyers, teachers, journalists and members of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) and Bangladesh Legal Aid Services TYust (BLAST).

Fazlul Karim said with growing number of cases and huge number of pending cases, it is often difficult to handle all cases through formal trial though constitution ensures justice.

He said ADR can play a vital role to

speed up justice to people.

Many people are tending to take up law into their own hands, commit crimes or go for self-destructive activities like suicide due to frustration over prolonged procedures of formal trial, said Justice Rashid.

Law Commission member Prof M Shah Alam, Law Commission Chief Research Officer Md Akhteruzzaman and Senior Research Officer Sharmin Nigar presented three keynote papers at the seminar.

Alam in his paper said Indian subcontinent has a very rich heritage of informal justice system traditionally known as 'shalish' in Bangladesh while panchayet in India. This age-old informal justice system has acquired common characteristics as ADR by last few decades of worldwide positive endeavour to renew and strengthen it.

He also put up recommendations including formation of National Mediation Council, compulsory course on ADR in universities and law colleges and court-sponsored ADR application in both new cases or pending ones.