Courtroom shortage forces 200 lower court judges to share facilities

At least 200 lower court judges across the country are being forced to share courtrooms due to an acute shortage of facilities, according to officials of the Supreme Court (SC) Registry.

The situation has led to a significant loss of judicial productivity and is ultimately denying litigants timely and fair access to justice.

According to a Judiciary Reform Commission (JRC) report submitted in January 2025, there are 2,254 judges serving in lower courts across all 64 districts. Of them, 319 judges have been deputed to various offices, including the SC, on non-judicial duties.

Of the remaining judges, at least 200 do not have dedicated courtrooms and are compelled to share facilities, severely constraining their ability to discharge judicial functions effectively.

In September last year, the government created 232 new judicial posts in courts across the country. However, concerned stakeholders have warned that once recruitment to these posts is completed, the existing crisis will worsen further unless additional courtrooms are constructed.

The JRC report noted that, in 2023, a judge disposed of an average of over 667 cases annually. If the 200 judges currently without courtrooms were provided with dedicated facilities, they could collectively dispose of an additional 133,512 cases every year. Due to the lack of infrastructure, however, this potential remains unrealised.

As of June 30, 2025, a total of 4.65 million cases were pending before courts nationwide, including the High Court and Appellate Divisions of the SC. Of these, around 3.99 million cases were pending in lower courts across the 64 districts.

Excluding the 319 judges engaged in non-judicial duties, each serving lower court judge is currently burdened with an average of 2,066 pending cases.

The report observed that the number of lower court judges is grossly inadequate in relation to the country's population and the volume of cases filed. If no new cases were lodged, it would still take nearly three years for lower courts to clear the existing backlog. However, at the current rate of filing and disposal, at least 4.3 million new cases are expected to be added over the same period.

The higher judiciary is also facing a shortage of judges, despite having relatively adequate infrastructure facilities. As of the same date, 37,002 cases were pending before the Appellate Division, while 616,453 cases in the High Court.

At present, the Appellate Division has only six judges and the High Court Division 108 judges. As a result, each Appellate Division judge is handling an average of 6,167 cases, while each High Court judge is responsible for an average of 5,708 cases.

To ensure the effective utilisation of judicial working hours, the Judiciary Reform Commission has urgently recommended the construction of courtrooms for 66 District Judge Courts and 64 Chief Judicial Magistrate Courts. At the time of the report, 130 judges were already sharing courtrooms.

Habibur Rahman Siddiquee, registrar general of the SC and the first acting secretary of the newly established Supreme Court Secretariat, told The Financial Express that the crisis is long-standing.

He said the government had been approached repeatedly for infrastructure support, but bureaucratic delays had prevented immediate solutions. However, he expressed optimism that the establishment of a separate Supreme Court Secretariat would help address the problem more effectively.

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