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The ruling from the Supreme Court, which comprises 71 judges, comes into effect Thursday. It brings all of the country's courts under the authority of the Supreme Court. Bangladesh's courts had been under the control of the executive branch, and whatever politicians were in power, since the country's liberation in 1971. This is despite Articles 116 and 116A of the Constitution, which asserts the existence of an independent judiciary.
In order to understand why the magistrate felt humiliated, it is important to know the nature of his job -- which has been a riddle to the people as the role keeps changing with the times. In the morning, the magistrate serves as revenue collector on behalf of the Ministry of Finance. After a few hours, the same person -- who generally has little or no credible knowledge of the law and no academic degree -- becomes a judge, controlled by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Later in the day, the magistrate turns into an administrator and follows orders from various ministries, including the office of the prime minister. He also acts as a custodian of public properties under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works. So the magistrate must serve a number of government ministries.
Magistrates exercise unbelievable power, despite their lack of qualifications. On one hand they do not know the basic laws, while on the other they are trained as first-class officers in the government's cadre services. They are not trained to uphold justice for the helpless segments of society. The magistrates are more interested in promotions than their professions and spend more time satisfying their masters -- their superior officers and the political rulers of respective regimes, than understanding and implementing laws.
Magistrates routinely abuse their power to gain and give benefits to privileged groups in public service and those in power. A criminal can be freed from a trial court based on a single phone call from a politician in return for favors; bribes have established a culture of "give and take." The magistracy is synonymous with corruption and injustice and contributes little in terms of good governance. In their quest for justice, the helpless poor people suffer a denial of justice and a loss of their resources and their trust in the judiciary.
Although the Constitution of Bangladesh provides for an independent judiciary, the political and military governments, influenced by bureaucrats, have ignored such provisions for decades. On Dec. 2, 1999, the Supreme Court ordered the government to separate the judiciary from the executive branch and provided a 12-point directive to implement it. However, politicians and bureaucrats ignored it.
A contempt of court suit against high-ranking civil servants for disobeying the Supreme Court directive is still pending in the Appellate Division. Regular petitions filed by the government for more time to prepare their case have turned the suit into a farce.
When the present military-backed government came to power it had no wish to start the separation process beyond merely notifying concerned parties of the rules suggested by the Appellate Division. In order to survive and align with powerful professionals, the government has proceeded to complete the separation of the judiciary from the executive branch, although real independence of the judiciary is a far-reaching dream for the nation. The country's bureaucrats have enjoyed power over the judiciary for the past 37 years, but that is not enough to satisfy their hunger and thirst for more power and pelf.
The magistrates in Bangladesh are looking to torpedo the process of making the judiciary independent, as they fear losing their power. They have already proven their inability as judges, frequently exposing their non-judicial attitudes in public. The Bangladeshis will have to wait for the Supreme Court's response as to whether the concerned bureaucrats should be held responsible for contempt of court.
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender of Bangladesh who has been working on human rights issues in the country for more than a decade and who was a journalist in Bangladesh in the 1990s.)
