Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday said terrorism gets the chance to flourish in absence of rule of law, and terrorism, in various forms, has been one of the constant life threatening concerns affecting more or less every country of the world in the 21st century.“If rule of law is not maintained in a country, terrorism may sneak into that place. For example, due to the lack of rule of law, one of the European countries is not qualified to be a member of European Union (EU),” he said while addressing as chief guest at the launching  ceremony  of monthly English  law  magazine ‘Bangladesh  Legal Times’, published by Banglar  Bani group at Hotel Radisson in the capital yesterday evening.Law Minister Anisul Huq and Bangladesh Legal Times Editor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh also spoke on the occasion, where justices of the Appellate and High Court divisions, Dhaka south city corporation mayor, parliament members, government high officials and eminent lawyers were also present.
The chief justice said, “Terrorism is an instrument of the worst enemies of the mankind bent on suppressing and crushing the people’s struggle for global peace and security. It is a symptom, not the disease, and the reasons for the disease are mainly-poverty, religious fanaticism, illiteracy, social inequality and sense of deprivation or frustration”.
“Terrorism, in any form, has been one of the constant life threatening concerns affecting more or less every country of the world in the 21st century. Terrorism has no country and it is a threat to the whole mankind. As a peace-loving country, Bangladesh is fully committed and ready to fight against terrorism and support all meaningful steps to be taken by the international community to combat the menace,” he said.
Justice SK Sinha also said the people of Bangladesh face significant hurdles in accessing their judicial system.
“Vulnerable groups, including the poor, women, children, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities face particular exclusion. Throughout the formal justice system, there is a significant lack of capacity within the judiciary, relevant ministries and statutory bodies,” he said.
The chief justice said there are some specific constraints to access to justice including prohibitive costs, corruption and undue influence and lack of awareness about legal rights.
 “Nowadays, it is unfortunate to note that lawyers are politically motivated; they do not raise any voice against the political parties belonging to him or its leaders,” he said.
“Some lawyers have also developed a mentality to commercialize the profession. They are not interested to give their due attention in hearing substantive matters like suits, first appeals and writs etc. We always discover serious flaws in plaints, written statements, writ petitions and even in the bail petitions and injunction petitions. The quality of drafting legal instruments is degrading day by day. They are interested to hear injunction and bail matters, etc. As a result, we hardly find any good number of lawyers, with some exception, to hearing substantive matters. If this continues, I do apprehend that the judiciary will be in peril within 20 to 25 years and as a result, the rule of law, which is a foundation of democracy, will be a far cry,” he said.
Justice SK Sinha said one of the main reasons behind the case backlog is awful shortage of judges in both tiers of the judiciary as well as the lack of infrastructure.
“In comparison to sixteen crore people, the 1600 judges is far too meager and inadequate. Until and unless the present strength of judges is not increased to at least the double, no dramatic change can be expected,” he said.
Chief Justice Sinha expressed his hope that the newly launched Bangladesh Legal Times will bear penetration to formidable and forbidding topics and will help increase the legal knowledge of law students, lawyers, judges and all other stakeholders.