“Separation of Judiciary and Judicial Independence: Bangladesh Perspective

Abstract

In Bangladesh, the separation of the judiciary and its independence are constitutional mandates repeatedly declared in the judicial pronouncements; but no effective steps were taken by any governments before 2007. In order to fulfill the constitutional mandates and mandatory directions of the judgment of the Masdar Hossain case, the judiciary, particularly judicial magistrate courts were formally separated from the executive on 1st November 2007. More than 12 years have gone since the formal separation of the judiciary from the executive. Independent judiciary is a condition sine qua non of a democratic government. In a democratic state, state power rests on three separate organs, namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh vests executive power in the executive and legislative power in the parliament. Judicial power is vested in the judiciary both by tradition as well as by various provisions of the Constitution. The judiciary comprises all courts and tribunals, which performs the delicate task of ensuring rule of law in society. A social structure remains logical and solid with the aid of a sound judicial system. The judiciary redresses grievances of the people and resolves disputes. The dysfunction of judiciary impacts more severely than that of any other institution as it removes from the mind of people the sense of attachment to society. Although the judiciary was independent for sometimes at the colonial period, the colonial administration did not want to separate the judiciary permanently for their colonial interest. From the analysis of the study, the findings as revealed are negative; therefore, the barriers have also been identified and explored in the paper.