Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique has said the justice-seeking people who come to the court for justice are becoming destitute due to the corruption of the officials of the courts and the high demand of many lawyers.
He said, “People from different parts of the country come to the High Court acknowledging the hardships only to get justice. Lawyers often do not treat the litigants well if their (lawyers) demand is not fulfilled. Most lawyers are good, however, many of the lawyers misbehave with their clients for money.”
“After that when the justice-seeking people come to court premises then they have to pay different types of fees. We all know what types of fees are those. Gradually these people become destitute,” added the Chief Justice.
He was speaking as the chief guest at an ‘awareness workshop organized for the bench officers, bench readers and section supers in order to improve the quality of government legal aid activities in the Supreme Court’.
Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee and a rights organization, Manusher Jonno Foundation, arranged the program on Wednesday at the judges’ lounge of the Supreme Court.
Appellate Division judges, Justice Obaidul Hassan, Justice Borhanuddin and Justice Krishna Debnath, Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee Chairman Justice Jahangir Hossain, among others, gave speeches during the programme.
The Chief Justice also said, “The salary that the government gives us comes from the tax money of all these people. These people come to us, they stand on the dock of the court and want justice. But to get this justice, they become utterly destitute. It will be our failure if we cannot provide proper service to these justice-seeking people.”
“If it comes to my notice that anyone is trying to take advantage of the plight of these miserable people, I will not tolerate it in any way. I have already formed a committee after taking the charge of the Chief Justice. The court is the last shelter of the common people. We will not tolerate the slightest presence of any kind of irregularity here. I will not hesitate to take any drastic step in this regard.”
