DHAKA, Dec 24, 2019 (BSS)- Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq today urged the district judges to put emphasis on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to reduce backlog of cases.
He was addressing a conference titled “Government Legal Aid and Strengthening Good Governance” at a city hotel.
National Legal Aid Services Organization arranged the function which was attended by district judges.
Law Secretary Md Golam Sarwar and UNDP Bangladesh’s Deputy Resident Representative Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van, among others, addressed the function with National Legal Aid Services Organization Acting director AHM Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan in the chair.
The law minister said disposal of a large number of cases is being held under ADR method in many countries of the world. Referring to Japan, he said maximum civil cases are being disposed through mediation in the country.
He urged the district judges to accelerate the ADR method and to encourage their colleagues in disposing of cases following the method.
Anisul urged all district legal aid committee members to work sincerely to make the government legal aid programme a success to attain the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Legal aid offices should be made more effective and awareness raising campaign should be conducted to this end, he added.
The minister said the government is working to take forward the social development and economic progress to build a ‘Sonar Bangla’ as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
There is no alternative to strengthening rule of law and ensuring the people’s access to justice to achieve the goals, he added.
He said a total of 4,78,858 persons were given government legal aid services since 2009. Besides, Taka 28 crore 84 lakh 92 thousand 615 was realized by using the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) method.