Court employees making millions manipulating cause list!

The country’s chief law officer has alleged that a large portion of the court officials and employees is involved in corruption.

He came up with the comment on Sunday while greeting newly-appointed Chief Justice (CJ) Syed Mahmud Hossain at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

According to Attorney General (AG) Mahbubey Alam, "If this situation continues, it'll be difficult for those who are still honest to maintain their honesty."

He also mentioned that there’s been decay in judiciary's image over the last few years.

He lamented, "I didn't hear any negative remark even against any bench officer when I entered the court in 1975. But what is discussed now about different High Court benches can't be expressed in words."

Mr Alam further said, "In some cases, it happens that cases filed four years ago are still on the cause list, but the final hearing of those filed only two months ago is running. Some dishonest court employees are making millions of taka manipulating the cause list."

According to him, verdicts in many cases are not being delivered for months after months. "It's also seen that the full verdict is not delivered even in months after the short judgment."

UNB said he alleged that the judges do not maintain the time stipulated in the cause list and said the judiciary will collapse if the situation continues.

"The most dangerous matter is that some particular courts have turned into courts of particular lawyers. The justice-seekers know by which lawyers at which courts they can win their cases. This is completely contrary to the justice," he said.

The chief state legal counsel, however, said many judges keep their judicial activities at their hands and the court officials are bound to perform the duties as per their orders. "But some judges' mismanagement in running court activities is tarnishing the judiciary's image."

Also, he expressed the optimism that the new CJ can bring a radical change during his tenure.

The new CJ will take steps to further use information technology in the judicial activities, the AG hoped.