Legal profession has become a business: Chief Justice

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain today said legal profession has become a business now.

The chief justice made the remark while presiding over a six-member full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for virtually dealing with several jail appeals filed by underprivileged convicts.

Lawyers in the past would not charge more than set fees, he said, adding that they should provide pro bono legal service to at least 10 percent cases of poor litigants.

The chief justice told senior lawyer and criminal law expert Md Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury that senior lawyers like him (Munsurul) should move cases for disadvantaged litigants without any fee.

Justice Muhammad Imman Ali, a senior-most member of the apex court bench, said lawyers' practicing licenses are to be renewed every year in different countries of the world.

The lawyers have to show that they have moved some cases pro bono, otherwise, their practicing licenses are not renewed, he said.

Advocate Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury told the court that the honorarium given to the state defence lawyers is very inadequate.

If their honorariums are hiked, they will be encouraged to move cases, including the appeals of the poor litigants, more sincerely, he said. 

Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury told The Daily Star that the poor convicts, who can't afford to engage lawyers due to financial crisis, filed appeals through jail authorities.

Such convicts in prisons need to be provided free legal service, he added.