Virtual Courts Needed in Special Conditions: Anisul

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq on Sunday said government training for lawyers to enhance their capacities to participate in the virtual court system, is the need of the time.

''This training is very important. I would like to humbly request my lawyers’ friends to take this training very seriously and I hope they would develop their capacities on the virtual court system by taking part in this training,'' he said.

The law minister came up with the observation while virtually inaugurating the training program titled ''Capacity Development of the Lawyer on Virtual Court System'' this afternoon.

Anisul Huq, a jurist himself, said where many courts around the world were forced to shut their operations due to the corona pandemic, Bangladesh was successful in keeping its courts up and running by using information technology through alternative ways.

''According to the information of our Ministry of Home Affairs, the capacity of our jails is 41,318, whereas there were as many as 93 thousand inmates in our jails. If coronavirus could have penetrated our jails, we could have been in big-time trouble,'' he said.

The law minister said under the circumstances, the Prime Minister ordered him to take necessary steps to implement the plan by introducing a virtual court system, even to a limited extent if necessary.

''By introducing the virtual court system, we have been able to lessen the pressure on our prison system and keep our courts running. But the compulsory thing that is needed to make this system fully functional is training for the lawyers,'' Anisul added.

He said without training for lawyers and setting up infrastructures, fully implementing the virtual court system, which is also a dream of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is not possible.

With the assistance from the German development agency (GIZ), the Law and Justice Division is organizing the training program for members of all the bar associations across the country.

Source: BSS