As many as 987 convicts are languishing in condemned cells across the country, because of a huge pile of death reference cases waiting for disposal in High Court.
The number of condemned cell prisoners were 1,000 last year, which, till Monday, stood at 987, due to the death reference cases pending in High Court, sources at the HC said. According to the HC sources, a total of 407 such cases remained pending in the court till August 20. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Mizanur Rahman said that long delays in disposal of cases violated human rights. “The cases should be taken care of as quickly as possible, so that litigants get justice on time,” he added.
Rahman suggested that the Chief Justice should start a monitoring system for quick disposal of the pending death reference cases. “A large number of prisoners convicted by trial courts are suffering mentally, due to uncertainties over their fate,” he said.
However, attorney general Mahbubey Alam told The Independent that the court needed more time to dispose of such cases, to ensure justice. “Now, more benches have been assigned to dispose of these cases.”
The special benches, together, disposed of 145 pending death reference cases in 2012, which is a record number for a single year in the country. “I hope the speedy disposal like previous year would be maintained this year, too,” the AG added.
Court officials said the “stellar performance” was due to initiatives taken by the Chief Justice. “Considering the immense suffering of the large number of prisoners convicted by trial courts, the Chief Justice had assigned four HC benches, in order to expedite the trial proceedings of the death references cases,” a senior official in the registrar’s office said.
Court sources said 137 death reference cases were filed in the HC in 2008. Among them, 41 cases were disposed of by this July, as the HC benches concerned were now dealing with those cases, which were filed before the HC in the year of 2008, according to sources.
Sources said the authorities concerned have completed the “paper books” of all the pending cases from 2008. A “paper book” contains all documents related to proceedings and conviction by a trial court, and it needs to be submitted before referring a case to the HC.
-With The Independent input
