Over one thousand people, sentenced to death by trial courts over the years, are languishing in the country’s 67 jails due to delay in disposing of their appeals, say prison officials.
According to an official in the Supreme Court registrar’s office, as of October 5, 2011, 560 appeals involving death sentences were pending with the High Court.
Many appeals relate to more than one convicted person.
Of the pending appeals, only 20 had actually been sent to four High Court benches which were specially assigned to hear such cases.
The others have not yet been prepared for hearing.
The Supreme Court official, however, said that 14 more cases were ready for hearing but they would not be referred to the High Court benches until the courts had disposed of some of the cases still before them.
He also said that 17 other cases had been sent to the government press for publication of the ‘paper books’ which contained all the documents relating to the trials and convictions, and needed to be prepared by the court before they were referred to the High Court benches.
The four benches, which have been assigned to hear death sentence cases are the benches of Justice Afzal Hossain Ahmed and Justice Md Emdadul Haque Azad, that of Md Miftahuddin Ahmed Choudhury and Md Shawkat Hossain, the bench of Justice Syed Md Ziaul Karim and Justice ANM Bashir Ullah, and that of Justice Md Fazlur Rahman and Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha.
‘The delay in printing paper books has resulted in a backlog of death reference cases,’ said deputy attorney general Bhishama Dev Chakrabarty who represents the state in cases before the bench of Justice Fazlur Rahman.
It takes two or three years for a paper book to be printed, he added.
The state attorney also said that the court needed time to dispose of such cases to ensure justice.
‘There is a lack of competence in the judges and shortage of courts to ensure speedy disposal of such cases,’ said SM Rezaul Karim
who was defending seven people sentenced to death in 2005 by a trial court relating to the murder of five people in Munshiganj.
‘My clients were put in jail before 2005 and they are bearing the pain of death in an isolated cell although they should not be considered guilty until confirmation of their sentences’, he added.
Many convicts facing a death sentence are acquitted following High Court scrutiny.
In October 2010, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Mizanur Rahman told reporters that human rights were being violated due to long delay in disposal of cases.
Cases should be dealt with quickly so that litigants get justice in a short period of time, he told reporters after a meeting he held with the then chief justice Khairul Haque.
He also urged the then chief justice to take steps for quick disposal of death reference cases pending with the High Court Division, as a large number of death row prisoners convicted by trial courts are suffering due to delay in disposal of the cases.
-With New Age input
