The Judiciary of Bangladesh

The Judiciary of Bangladesh consists of a Supreme Court, subordinate courts and tribunals. ===The Supreme Court=== The Supreme Court of Bangladesh comprises the Appellate Division and the High Court Division. It is the apex Court of the country and other Courts and Tribunals are subordinate to it.

The Appellate Division

The Appellate Division shall have Jurisdiction to hear and determine appeals from judgments, decrees, orders or sentences of the High Court Division. It has rule making power for regulating the practice and procedure of each division and of any Court subordinate to it. Chancery Research and Consultants Trust (CRC-Trust) maintains a website Chancery Law Chronicles-First ever Online Database of Bangladesh Laws where it has already included 4500 judgements of the Appellate Division and High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh from 1972 to till date.

The High Court Division

The High Court Division, though a Division of the Supreme Court, is for all practical purposes, an independent court with its powers, functions and jurisdictions well defined and determined under the Constitution and different laws. It has both appellate as well as original jurisdiction. It hears appeals from orders, decrees and judgments of subordinate courts and tribunals. It has original jurisdiction to hear Writ Applications under article 102 of the Constitution, which is known as extra ordinary constitutional jurisdiction. It has further original jurisdiction, inter alia, in respect of company and admiralty matters under statutes. The High Court Division, in special circumstances, has also powers and jurisdiction to hear and dispose of cases as the court of first instance under article 101 of the Constitution. The High Court Division shall have Superintendence and control over all Courts and tribunals subordinate to it.

The Subordinate Courts and Tribunals

There are a wide variety of subordinate courts and tribunals. Such courts and tribunals are created by some relevant statutes. All their powers, functions and jurisdictions are well determined by the respective statutes. These are the basic courts in the system of the judiciary of Bangladesh. The major bulk of the cases, both civil and criminal, are tried and heard in such courts and tribunals. Certain tribunals are termed as administrative tribunals, Nari-o-Shishu Nirjato Daman Tribunals, Special Tribunals etc. Such courts and tribunals spread all over the country at district levels. The subordinate courts in Bangladesh can be divided in two broad classes, namely, civil courts and criminal courts.

Civil Courts

The civil courts are created under the Civil Courts Act of 1887. The Act provides for five tiers of civil courts in a district, which bottom-up are:

• Court of Assistant Judge,≤
• Court of Senior Assistant Judge,≤
• Court of Joint District Judge,≤
• Court of Additional District Judge and ≤
• Court of District Judge.

The first three are courts of first instances with powers, functions and jurisdictions in respect of subject matter, territory and pecuniary value determined by or under statutes.
The rest two are generally courts of appeal in civil matters. now the civil suits are rapidly disclose in the court:

Criminal Courts

• Courts of Sessions
• Courts of Metropolitan Sessions
• Special courts/tribunals (Criminal)
• Courts of Metropolitan Magistrate
• Courts of Magistrate

Legal profession

The academic systems of the country allow two separate systems of qualifying legal degrees in Bangladesh which are college-oriented two year LL.B. degrees and the University-based four-year LL.B. (Hons.) degrees which require more extensive academic commitment and the places at the universities remain competitive. Recently there has been a rise in the trend of obtaining foreign academic LL.B. degrees (especially from the UK).

External links

• http://www.clcbd.org/index.php
• http://www.minlaw.gov.bd/supremecourt.htm
• http://www.worldlawyerinfo.com/

By

Tawfique Imam Khan Anik

(anikkhanbd@gmail.com)

+8801942821249