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according to him.

He suggested reforming the entire judiciary, appointing adequate judges in proportion to the number of cases, and reducing the workload of the judges, who have to take charge of multiple courts and tribunals simultaneously.

The chief justice called for speedy recruitment of skilled manpower to the post of stenographers for assistant and senior assistant judges, and recruitment of staff in all courts of joint district and sessions judges.

Supreme Court lawyer Shishir Manir told The Daily Star in October last year that litigants were losing their trust and confidence in the judiciary because of the backlog of cases.

“We should take measures to immediately increase the number of efficient judges both in the Supreme Court and the lower courts, and appoint adequate supporting staff, such as research officers, stenographers,” he said.

“The Supreme Court may rethink the length of vacation days. Miscellaneous cases should be disposed of by constituting special benches. E-judiciary project should be accelerated and ⁠the police should complete investigation at the earliest opportunities,” Shishir Manir added.

SC Registrar General Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan declined to comment on the backlog of cases.

RESOLUTION OF MAJOR CASES

On October 20 last year, the Appellate Division disposed of the long pending review petition involving the 16th amendment to the constitution, saying that the Supreme Judicial Council, not parliament, will deal with the allegations against SC judges over incapacity or misconduct.

The Appellate Division on December 10 last year stayed a High Court verdict that declared “Joy Bangla” as the country’s national slogan.

The apex court on December 1 stayed a High Court verdict that justified August 15 as National Mourning Day and public holiday.

On December 8, the Appellate Division upheld the High Court verdicts that scrapped all the proceedings of five cases filed against Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus. The cases were filed under the Labour Act in 2019 on charges of illegally terminating some workers of Grameen Telecommunications. Yunus was the chairman of the organisation that time.

On November 11, the apex court stayed the HC verdict that doubled BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s jail term to 10 years in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

The court on December 10 stayed a HC verdict that sentenced BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman to seven years’ imprisonment in a money laundering case and also stayed a lower court judgement that sentenced Tarique’s close aide Gias Uddin Al Mamun to seven years in jail.

The Appellate Division on December 2 started hearing the Jamaat-e-Islami’s appeal challenging a HC verdict that scrapped its registration with the Election Commission as a political party.

The top court is expected to conclude the hearing and deliver a verdict soon.

The High Court on December 1 disposed of the two cases filed over the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally. It acquitted Tarique, former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar and all the other convicts in the cases.

On October 30, the HC scrapped the trial proceedings of 11 cases filed against Khaleda over arson, violence, and sedition in 2015.

Earlier on October 23, the HC scrapped four extortion cases filed against Tarique during the regime of the military-backed caretaker government in 2007.

Besides, the High Court on December 17 scrapped a part of the 15th amendment to the constitution that abolished the non-partisan caretaker government system and also restored the provision for holding referendums for amending the constitution.

Meanwhile, the SC has sent its proposals to the law ministry for establishing a separate secretariat for the judiciary and formulating a law for the recruitment of SC judges.

On December 19, the HC in a verdict acquitted Babar and five others, who were sentenced to death by the trial court, in a case filed over the sensational 10-truck arms haul in Chattogram in 2004.

Meanwhile, the government has constituted a commission headed by Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman, a former Appellate Division judge, to make necessary recommendations in order to bring reforms to the judiciary.