The police will not have any role in the submission of bail papers by lawyers and their signing by the judge at the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, a move that will reduce difficulties for petitioners, believe lawyers.
Previously lawyers had to submit the bail paper to the General Registration Office of the police when a judge approves the bail for a case filed under the penal code before the case report is submitted to the court. The police division then prepares a five-phase bail order and sends it to the judge. The accused would only be released after that order signed by the judge reached the jail.
Lawyers and petitioners say they also had to pay bribes to the police in order to ‘speed up’ each of the phases in the general registration division which added to the difficulties.
Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Saifuzzaman Hero scrapped the old process on September 12. He introduced a new process where the petitioners have to submit the bail papers through the stenographer of the same court from where they received the bail.
The stenographer will document the bail order and send to the judge for signature. Police will no longer have a role in the process.
Lawyers and petitioners have welcomed the decision, while court police officials have refused to comment on the issue.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court processes more than 500 bail petitions a day, said former Dhaka Lawyers Association President Saidur Rahman Manik adding that Dhaka Metropolitan Session Court also process bail petitions through the administrative officer and the stenographer.
“There you don’t have to go through so many steps like the Magistrate Court after submitting the bail plea. The petitioners face comparatively less trouble in the process. We’re happy that the Magistrate Court has introduced the same system.”
“The initiative by the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate has saved the lawyers and petitioners from the hassles of police. None of the lawyers have opposed the move. It prevents the police from eliciting bribes from the petitioners at every step,” Advocate Mahbub Hassan Rana said.
“It is an administrative decision. I have no reaction to it,” Anisur Rahman, the deputy-commissioner of crime, information and prosecution division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said.
“The move may disappoint a certain quarter but I believe it will act as a stepping stone to reduce the corruption in the judiciary,” said human rights activist Parvez Hashem, who is also a Supreme Court lawyer.
The chief metropolitan magistrate has also taken another initiative which will speed up the trial process of general registrar (GR) cases and complaint registrar (CR) cases, said the lawyers.
The new system allows the concerned magistrate to send the documents to the chief metropolitan magistrate within 3 days when a CR case suspect turns themselves in.
The chief metropolitan magistrate will assign a metropolitan magistrate for the trial and fix the trial date soon after receiving the documents, bdnews24 reported.
If implemented, the new system will not let the case documents lie in drawers, but the case file will move accordingly, believe the lawyers.
The process will be the same for general registrar cases as well.
Lawyers believe it will reduce the waiting time to begin a trial.
