Bangladesh: No judges in 219 courts.

If this is the situation, how one can expect Rule of Law ?
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New Age/10 July, 2005
No judges in 219 courts, 87 on deputation SHAHIDUZZAMAN
Eighty-seven judges are performing non-judicial functions with different ministries and departments on deputation when 219 courts of the country have been running without judges for years. Thirty-one district judges, 13 additional district judges, 32 joint district judges and 11 assistant district judges have been deputed by ignoring the 12-point directive of the Supreme Court, and causing enormous sufferings to the litigants, the court sources said. Sources in the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry said crisis of judges reached such a stage as the government could not go for fresh recruitment following a SC bar. The SC on December 2, 1999 detailed the 12-point directive regarding the separation of the judiciary from the administration, barring the government to go for fresh recruitment before forming a Judicial Services Commission. It also imposed a restriction on the performance of non-judicial and administrative functions by the judges on deputation in any ministry or department of the government. It, however, allowed deputation to perform judicial functions. The court sources said judicial activities, which had been affecting because of the want of judges, reached to the peak for the deputation of the judges. A row between the SC and the ministry over the transfer and posting of judges is also affecting the judicial activities in many courts as the posts of more than a dozen of district judges and three joint district judges are lying vacant for the same reason, they added. The Supreme Court is sitting idle with some files of transfer and posting of judges on ground that it does not match the court’s 12-point directive and set rules of the court, claimed a source in the court. According to the constitution, the government has to transfer and offer posting of the judges in consultation with the Supreme Court. The ministry sources, however, said the ministry had referred some files of transfer and posting of the judges requesting the Supreme Court to review its previous recommendations. The law minister, Moudud Ahmed, told New Age on Saturday that all the deputations were made in consultation with the Supreme Court. He, however, said 21 of the judges were deputed to the law ministry to perform judicial-administrative functions. The ministry has to propose for deputation of the rest of the judges according to the demands made by different ministries and departments to deal with legal matters in their respective offices, he added. Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission and five other ministries and departments have asked the law ministry to depute nine judges, said sources in the ministry.