Staff Correspondent

The government is likely to appoint some new judges to the Appellate and High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court soon in order to reduce the backlogs of pending cases.

“Some new judges will be appointed to the High Court Division and few judges from the High Court Division will be elevated to the Appellate Division soon for increasing the rate of case disposal,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star on Friday.

“I have said earlier that appointment of judges is a continuous process. When the posts of judges fall vacant, new judges are appointed,” he said.

The law minister said he will not disclose at this moment when and how many judges will be appointed to the Appellate and High Court Divisions which are now experiencing around five lakh pending cases.

According to sources at the SC, discussions are going on in the policy making authorities for appointing 12 judges to the HC Division.

Of the 12, four may be picked from the SC bar association, four from the lower courts and another four from the attorney general’s office.

Besides, three judges from the HC division may be promoted to the Appellate Division. The numbers may be increased at the final stage.

The crisis of judges increased the case backlogs at the courts of the country in the last few years and the pandemic restrictions have turned the situation graver, causing immense sufferings to the justice seekers.

There are five judges including the chief justice in the Appellate Division (AD) and 91 in the HC division now.

The chief justice will retire on December 31 this year.

But the number of cases pending with the AD is 15,225 while it was 4,52,963 with the HC till December 31 last year, according to a study report of Law Lab, a law-chamber that conducts research on legal and constitutional issues.

The president gave the last appointment on September 2, 2020 when two HC judges -- Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice Obaidul Hassan -- were promoted to the Appellate Division.

However, Justice Tariq retired 12 days after his promotion.

In 1974, the AD had five judges and the number of the HC judges was 12. The pending cases in the AD and HC at that time were 4,094 and 28,186 respectively.

On July 9, 2009, the then president raised the number of judges at the Appellate Division from seven to 11 prior to disposing of some important cases.