The High Court on Monday prescribed departmental action against judges of women and children repression prevention tribunals, public prosecutors and investigation officers who would fail to complete the trial of accused within the stipulated 180 days. In the event of failure to complete trials within the stipulated time frame, the HC directive would require tribunal judges, PPs attached to the tribunals and the IOs to submit reports to their respective authorities within 30 days providing the reasons why the trials could not be completed in due time. The High Court Division gave the unprecedented directive being informed on Monday that in last 16 years, not a single report was submitted after failure to complete trials of the accused within the stipulated time frame. The latest HC directive on the matter would require the tribunal judges to submit their reports to the Supreme Court. It would require the PPs to submit their reports to the law ministry and the IOs to the home ministry. The HC prescribed action for misconduct and negligence whoever was found responsible for causing the delays on scrutiny of the reports submitted by the judges, PPs and the IOs. A bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan issued the directive at Monday’s hearing after rejecting bail petition of Md Milad Hossain accused of murdering his wife. The bench granted an additional 60 days to Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 in Chittagong to complete Milad’s trial as it had failed to complete it within the scheduled time. The cases has been pending with the tribunal since April 2015, as none of the 14 witnesses were produced by the prosecution in 19 months. Milad, 30, has been under jail custody for 21 for torturing and killing his wife Nur Akter on February 16, 2015failing to extract dowry from her family. At the same hearing, the HC was informed by the law ministry, the Supreme Court registrar general and the solicitor that not a single report was submitted after the failure to complete the trials of accused in 180 days. The law ministry also informed the bench that it could take no action against tribunal judges and the PPs as it received no complaints. The police headquarters in a statement said October 27 that violence against women and children increased in July-September quarter compared to the previous quarter. It also said that 46,350 cases relating to crimes against women and children filed across the country between July and September were under investigations. The police headquarters released the information during the quarterly police conference held on October 27. According to the rights groups the number of incidents of crimes against women and children were far more than the police report suggested. They said that the crimes increased as no offender gets punishment.
– See more at: http://www.newagebd.net/article/4194/failure-to-complete-trials-in-crimes-against-women-children-hc-wants-action-against-tribunal-judges-pps-ios#sthash.RoHhyNXA.dpuf
Source: New Age
