Ashutosh Sarkar

Thirteen years have passed since the night of horror at Ramu in Cox’s Bazar, when zealots set ablaze centuries-old Buddhist temples, looted homes and spread fear among the minority community.

Five years after a Dhaka court delivered the first-ever verdict under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, 2013, in the Ishtiaque Hossain Jonny murder case, the victim’s family says justice remains incomplete.

The High Court in the full text of a verdict has observed that the trial of a corruption case, in which BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman were convicted and sentenced to different jail terms in 2023, was not held impartially.

The Judiciary Reform Commission has recommended enacting a practical law to prevent false and vexatious cases, citing that such cases and the resulting sufferings of the accused are common in Bangladesh’s legal system.

The Judiciary Reform Commission has recommended amending Article 116 of the constitution to ensure the judiciary’s full independence and the separation of powers. The commission has proposed transferring control and discipline of lower court judges from the president to the Supreme Court and establishing a Supreme Court secretariat.

The practice of submitting wealth statements by Supreme Court judges to the chief justice has been stalled for the last 13 years due to the absence of a specific law or rule.

No bank or non-bank financial institution can lodge any cheque dishonour case to recover defaulted loans from now onwards, as per a High Court verdict yesterday.

Families of the Pilkhana carnage victims may have to wait for two more years to see the killers punished due to the lengthy nature of the judicial proceedings.