Our criminal gadget remains mired in a sea of previous, colonial-technology trappings.
Bangladesh bears the legacy of a device of management of justice from the British colonial rulers who gradually changed the Mughal device of administration of justice, which turned into, in most cases, based totally on Islamic principles.
Colonial legacies inclusive of Penal Code 1860, Police Act 1861, Evidence Act 1872, and Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, Jail Code are nonetheless in Bangladesh with only peripheral amendments. The ethos of constitutional law, the precedents of the Supreme Court, international treaty obligation, and enactment of special laws also impact the management of criminal justice in Bangladesh.
Although the enactment of colonial legislation has been considered the main success in phrases of aligning the then widespread crook regulation with commonplace law ideas, it has now come to be vital to make main adjustments and additions inside the crook justice system.
It is regularly stated that the modern-day regulation of Bangladesh continues to be mostly colonial and in spirit. According to Akbar Ali Khan, owing to the advent of the legal professional-centric adversarial device, prison reforms introduced by using the British in this location grew to become out to be “isomorphic mimicry,” which apparently appeared preferred western counterpart; however, in fact, become a gadget of exploitation for the negative, marginal, dissidents, and disadvantaged businesses.
With the passive position of judges, the acutely hostile procedure, advocacy of attorneys, authoritarian mode of law enforcement businesses, and the imposition of immoderate imprisonment become brought via the British rulers. Shaheen Malik rightly determined that the reason for the punishment was without a doubt recognized to be deterrence, and a brand new law-making manner of the British colonial rulers become mostly irrational, random, and erratic.
Though Bangladesh is heading towards a few economic accelerations in the route of its journey, it has nevertheless emerged as a hostage to many governance problems relating to yawning economic disparity and effectiveness of state institutions.
All these issues were allegedly accentuated by way of the mode and method of the justice quarter officers. In reality, the overall scenario of administration of crook justice might also mostly be depicted as coercive, dilatory, time-consuming, and hostile, with acute arrear of cases at exclusive stages of courts.
However, the deterioration in phrases of pleasant justice is arguably a lot starker than the mounting backlog of cases. Though through the years, some detached and half-hearted endeavors were made to do away with the procedural trappings and ensure powerful justice, the disaster inside the machine of justice is infinitely complex.
It is regularly alleged that lawlessness in the kinds of impunity and abuses of the coercive authority of the kingdom has no longer best been sizable however also systematic within kingdom-centric formal justice arrangements. More so, many crimes also stay unreported to the machinery of regulation.
Most of the crook regulation, process, establishments, and standards that advanced in the course of the British length (1757-1947) nonetheless govern the functioning of the criminal justice system. Alongside the steady growth of a chain of unique legal guidelines in the Seventies and afterward, some palliative reforms have also been initiated to ease the stress criminally.
However, the right software of crook law can be wondered in terms of welfare and effectiveness. Perhaps disenfranchised sections, including girls and the terrible, endure the burn of abuse of the felony method.
At times the seasoned-active role of the judiciary and private prison aid agencies in shielding the rights of the women and poor sufferers is commendable.
Though students together with Romila Thapar, Shashi Tharoor, Shaheen Malik are distinctly essential of the whimsical imposition of provincial regulation over the natives, I might add that the British colonial rulers can be fairly credited for growing a scientific and well-known crook justice machine in this place.
In essence, the modern-day courtroom system, the penal code, the honor for jurisprudence, and the value system of justice — even though not implemented fairly to natives all through the colonial era — are worthy legacies. However, our colonial rulers had controlled us with an acutely hostile legal machine; this is still laden with by no means-finishing procedural formalities.
For instance, the draconian concept of sedition changed into enacted as an offense in 1870 to suppress any complaint of British guidelines. In reality, the “race-aware justice system” became established by using an overseas race and imposed upon conquering those who had in no way been consulted in its introduction. However, colonial authority exercised their strength that criminalized a few malpractices such as sati, infanticide, infant marriage, and many others, skin-touchy justice and governance generated landlessness, pauperism, prostitution, and decline in moral values in any other case peaceful rural life.
Today, there may be no denying that the imperial raison d’etre and modus operandi of colonial law can in no manner be squarely relevant for an independent and democratic state that follows a listing of essential human rights.
The sufferers of crimes, reforms inside the investigations, cyber-crimes, and truthful sentencing coverage also dominate the communication on changes within the crook justice system.
The urgency for exploring cutting-edge technology inside the management of justice, consisting of the e-judiciary, has also come to the fore. Most importantly, aside from drastic felony reforms, we want to devise some pragmatic gear and tech-savvy mechanisms to comprise a “litigation explosion” and boom the first-class of justice.