Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000
Settle cases within 6 months: SC
MUHAMMAD YEASIN
The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the authorities to strictly follow Section 31 (A) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, which makes it mandatory for the lower court concerned to dispose of cases within 180 days. At present, the provision for disposal of cases under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act within 180 days is hardly followed in reality, which, as the SC observed, was unwanted, unprecedented, without lawful authority as well as tantamount to misconduct. The apex court came up with the order and observations by issuing a circular in this respect yesterday. In its circular, the apex court said as per Section 31 (A) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, a tribunal that fails to dispose of a case within the stipulated time (180 days) has to submit a report explaining the reason for the delay to the SC within 30 days of the expiry of the deadline.
It also requires the tribunal to send a copy of the report to the government, and stipulates the authorities to take action against those responsible for the delay.
Apart from that, the public prosecutor and the police officer concerned has to submit a report to the government and a certified copy has to be submitted before the SC if they have to complete their functions within the stipulated time, the circular said.
Recently, it has been seen that the provision for explaining the delay to the SC is not being maintained as the tribunals did not send any report to the SC explaining the reasons for the delay in the disposal of the cases. Moreover, the public prosecutor and the police officer also did not send any report to the SC in this regard. The matter is unwanted, unprecedented, unlawful as well as tantamount to misconduct, according to the circular.
Under such circumstances, it noted that all the authorities were being directed to strictly follow Section 31 (A) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000.
Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan, an expert on criminal law, told The Independent that this is a very good initiative by the apex court to implement Section 31 (A) of the Act. He expected the tribunals and officials dealing with the cases to be vigilant now in dealing with the cases, following the circular.
He also said if the provision for disposal of cases within 180 days is properly followed, the suffering for litigants and the increase in the number of pending cases in the courts would be reduced.
According to the sources, a total of 11,616 cases filed under the law was pending till March 31 in the five women and children repression prevention tribunals in Dhaka alone. According to sources in the SC, the total number of such pending cases across the country is 289,019.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official of the SC disclosed that some of the pending cases were filed more then 10 to 12 years ago. But they are yet to be disposed of. Hence, the number of pending cases is increasing day by day, he added. He also said the tribunals would now be more vigilant in disposing of such cases within the stipulated time. If they do not follow the circular, it would be considered misconduct, he noted.
The president of the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA), advocate Fawzia Karim Firoze, said women in the country were harassed in several ways because the existing laws were not being implemented properly. If the courts settle such cases within the stipulated time by meting out exemplary punishment to the criminals, the number of such kinds of crimes against women will go down, she asserted. The government had enacted the Women and Children Repression (Special Provision) Act in 1995 to deal with crimes against women and children. In 2000, the Act was replaced by the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
