The lawyers don’t co-operate with the speedy disposal of a case. The lawyer may help the court and the litigants in many ways for quick disposal of cases. The practice of asking for time on any ground, personal or other reasons, should be avoided and the procedure laid down in the Code of Civil Procedure for simplification of trial by taking pre-trial steps, such as, discovery, service of interrogatories etc. should be scrupulously adhered to so that at the final hearing no time is wasted securing adjournments on these grounds. The government lawyer’s negligence is also liable for delay in civil cases because they remain busy with their private cases. Many times government can’t present the statement of fact in right time. The ADC of a district is to prepare this. But they don’t send this in right time.20
The joint Dist. Judge, Additional Dist. judge and Dist. Judge are to judge both civil and criminal cases. This cases pressure on them. So separate judges should be appointed for each section. 21
Shortage of expert judicial officers causes delay in litigation. The factors relating to the judicial officers, their number, working conditions, accommodations, terms and conditions of service and lack of adequate training in the administration of justice which hinders quick and effective disposal of cases. The number of judicial officers is too inadequate and the volumes of work they have to cope with are disproportionately high. Recently it is found that the judges of the subordinate courts don’t appear in the court on time and before time they leave the court. Even they are not available in court during the court session. Moreover, judges leave their station on Thursday before working period as the following two days are weekly holidays. Again, it is also seen that on first working day they join their stations late. Files, for the hearing of appeal & revision are not presented by the subordinate courts on due time after being called for by the High Court Division, for this reason rapid hearing isn’t possible that courses delay in litigation. Lack of separate family courts also causes delay in civil cases. A civil court is overworked and encumbered by the procedure. The causes of delay for disposal of cases are obvious and complaint is often heard that a civil dispute never ends.
People often rush to the court for any small piece of land even though they do not have the means to prosecute a law suit. This also causes a huge pile of civil cases. Of the judges interviewed, most of them thought the reasons for the delay in disposal of cases were “Parties unwilling to take up the cases” and “Lawyers not being ready”. Most thought the factors “Judges remaining busy” and “Shortage of Staffs, Machines” responsible for 10-20% of the delay but they held the unwillingness of lawyers and parties to take up the case as being responsible for 60-80% of the delay.22
The Law Commission of Bangladesh established under the Ain Commission Ain, 1996 (Act No. XXX of 1996) pointed out some reasons for the delay disposal of civil cases in our subordinate Courts and provided some suggestions for improving the situation. The causes for the delay disposal of civil cases are23-
(a) Abundant number of cases in the subordinate Course;
(b) Absence of specialized Court;
(c) Defects of procedural law;
(d) Lack of dutifulness of the Judges;
(e) Lack of effective monitoring in the judicial system;
(f) Non-cooperation of the lawyer;
(g) Problems in serving process, Chance of amendment of plaint and submission of supplemental written statement and chance of prayer of unconditional interlocutory orders.
(h) Scarcity of logistics to the judges.