Supreme Court Returns to Full Judicial Work Today After a Month-and-Ten-Day Recess

After a continuous recess of one month and ten days, regular judicial proceedings resume in full swing from Sunday in both divisions of the country’s highest court — the Appellate Division and the High Court Division of the Supreme Court. With the long break over, the court premises return to their familiar bustle, as justice-seekers, lawyers and court staff fill the country’s apex court once again.

The Supreme Court administration confirmed the information in a notice issued on Saturday. According to the notice, although regular work resumes after the recess, it has been decided that the Appellate Division’s Court No. 1 will not hold its daily judicial proceedings on the first working day after the break.

The reason the court will not sit on the first day is the traditional courtesy call. The notice says that on the first day after the recess, a customary courtesy meeting will be held from 9:30am to 12:30pm at the Supreme Court’s Inner Yard. It is because of this traditional ceremony that regular judicial work in the Appellate Division’s principal court — Court No. 1 — has been suspended for the first working day.

At the special event, the Chief Justice and the judges of both divisions of the Supreme Court will exchange greetings with the Attorney General, the state’s chief law officer, the president and secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and the lawyers present. This customary gathering, which nurtures relations between the judiciary and the legal community, is held after every recess.

The courtesy-call exception, however, applies only to the Appellate Division’s Court No. 1. With regular proceedings beginning in the court’s other courts and the High Court Division’s benches, the apex court returns to its normal rhythm of work. Full judicial proceedings are expected in the Appellate Division’s principal court as well from Monday.

During the recess, vacation benches sit on a limited scale to hear urgent matters, but the normal pace of cases slows during this period. The reopening of regular courts is therefore important for justice-seekers — hearings of accumulated cases will start moving again, and fresh dates and directions can be given.

The Supreme Court is the highest tier of the country’s judicial system. As the centre of constitutional interpretation and of important verdicts and directives, every working day of this court carries significance for national life. The resumption of full-scale work after the long recess means the hearing and disposal of many awaited important matters will become active again.

Lawyers, too, are back in full activity. Many had been outside Dhaka during the break, but most returned to the capital the day before the court reopened. They are busy organising case files, finalising drafts and consulting clients — and the businesses around the court premises are regaining their old pace as well.

Justice-seekers hope that with regular courts in session, hearings of long-pending cases will move quickly. In particular, cases that were at the hearing stage just before the recess are expected to receive priority in the early cause lists, those concerned hope.

All in all, a new chapter of full judicial activity begins at the Supreme Court from Sunday. Once the first day’s courtesy-call ceremony is over, both divisions — Appellate and High Court — will run their normal schedule of hearings, verdicts and directives in full swing from Monday.