Judiciary of Bangladesh
The present
legal and judicial system of Bangladesh
owes its origin mainly to two hundred years British rule in the Indian
Sub-Continent although some elements of it are remnants of Pre-British period
tracing back to Hindu and Muslim administration. It passed through various
stages and has been gradually developed as a continuous historical process. The
process of evolution has been partly indigenous and partly foreign and the
legal system of the present day emanates from a mixed system which has structure,
legal principles and concepts modeled on both Indo-Mughal and English law. The
Indian sub-continent has a known history of over five hundred years with Hindu
and Muslim periods which preceeded the British period, and each of these early
periods had a distinctive legal system of its own.
The
Hindu period extends for nearly 1500 years before and after the beginning of
the Christian era. The ancient India
was divided into several independent states and the king was the Supreme
authority of each state. So far as the administration of justice was concerned,
the king was considered to be the fountain of justice and was entrusted with
the Supreme authority of administration of justice in his kingdom.
The
Muslim period starts with the invasion of the Muslim rulers in the Indian
sub-continent in 1100 A.D. The Hindu Kingdoms began to disintegrate gradually
with the invasion of Muslim rulers at the end of eleventh and at the beginning
of twelfth century. When the Muslims conquered all the states, they brought
with them the theory based o n the Holy Quran, their religious book. According
to the Holy Quran, sovereignty lies in the hand of Almighty Allah and the king
is His humble servant to carry out His will on the earth. The ruler was
Almighty's chosen agent and trustee.
The
modernization of ancient Indian legal and judicial system took place in the
hand of the British people who came here as being trading company under a
series of Royal Charters. East India Company gradually established control and
possession over Bombay, Madras
and Calcutta
which were later on known as Presidency Towns. Ultimately the Company
participated in administration of justice in co-operation with the local
authorities. The Charter of 1726 issued by King George-I, by way of granting
Letters Patent to the Company, was the first gateway to introduce English legal
and judicial system in India.
Later on, Charter of 1753 was issued by King George-II with a view to remove
the defects of the Charter of 1726. To improve the system, the secret committee
of House of Commons intervened, and passed the Regulation Act, 1773 under which
the King issued a separate Charter of 1774 establishing the Supreme Court of
judicature at Calcutta.
Subsequently, Supreme Courts were established in Madras
in 1801 and in Bombay
in 1824.
In
1853, the first Law Commission was established in India
and an all India
legislature was created whose laws were to be binding on all Courts. East India
Company was dissolved and the Government of India was taken over by the British
Crown in 1858, following the event of mutiny in 1857. The Civil Procedure Code,
Criminal Procedure Code, Penal Code, Evidence Act, etc. were enacted and with
this common legal fabric, the British Parliament in 1861 enacted Indian High
Courts Act which provided for the establishment of High Courts in three
Presidency Towns (Calcutta, Bombay & Madras) replacing the Supreme Court.
After the establishment of High Courts a regular hierarchy of Civil and
Criminal Courts were established by Civil Courts Act, 1887 and Criminal
Procedure Code, 1898 respectively. The present system of Civil and Criminal
Court, in Indian sub-Continent has their legal basis by virtue of these Civil
Courts Act, 1887 and Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 respectively. The British
Parliament declared India
& Pakistan
as independent dominions on 15 August, 1947 by the Indian Independence Act,
1947. This Act also provide that until the new Constitutions were framed for
independent India & Pakistan, the Government of these two countries were to
run by the Government of India Act, 1935. Judicial structure mostly remained
the same as it was before 1947.
The
Government of India Act.1935 changed the structure of the Government from
unitary to that of federal type. Accordingly, in both India and
Pakistan Federal Court was retained to function until new constitutions were
framed. Pakistan
constituent Assembly passed the privy council (Abolition of Jurisdiction) Act,
1950 which abolished the system of appeal to the Privy Council from the Federal
Court of Pakistan. The Federal Court appeared as the highest Court in Pakistan till
1956, when the High courts in the provinces and the Supreme Court of Pakistan
in the centre were established under the new Constitution. In Pakistan, the
constitution of 1956 was abrogated in 1958 and another one was introduced in
1962, but the whole judicial structure remained all the same. After liberation
in 1971, Bangladesh
adopted its Constitution in 1972, which provides the structure and functioning
of the Supreme Court comprising with the High Court Division and the Appellate
Division. Needless to say that in Bangladesh the sub-ordinate
judiciary both in Civil and Criminal side originated from Civil Court Act, 1887
and Criminal Procedure Code, 1898. Apart from this, in Bangladesh
there are some other special laws providing for the basis of some special
courts, such as labor court, Juvenile Court, Administrative tribunal etc.
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন