Govt stresses ADR to reduce judicial backlog: Anisul

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq on Saturday said the government is putting importance on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as its importance is rising all over the world for reducing judicial backlog.

  “If alternative dispute resolution system can be applied successfully, backlog of cases in courts will reduce,” he told a seminar titled ‘Impact of Covid-19 in resolving dispute in the virtual world’ at a city hotel.

  Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre (BIAC) arranged the seminar on the occasion of its 10th founding anniversary, said a press release.

Anisul said the government took e-judiciary project for increasing the use of information technology in judiciary.

   He said after assuming power for the first time, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government formulated Arbitration Act, 2001. Besides, the government added provisions of alternative dispute resolution to some acts in the last several years, he said.

  The minister said the government is thinking of including appropriate provision in all government agreements for arbitration and mediation for resolving commercial dispute outside of court.

  Besides, he said, the government took steps for making effective both domestic and international arbitration award in Bangladesh and it took initiative to modernize the evidence act 1872.

Anisul said BIAC as a first and only institution for ADR is playing an important role for resolving commercial dispute on the basis of compromise in the last 10 years.

BIAC Chairman Mahbubur Rahman chaired the function while former attorney general and former adviser to a caretaker government AF Hasan Arif, former justice of the Supreme Court AFM Abdur Rahman, Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Secretary Md Moinul Kabir, AB Bank Limited President and Managing Director Tareq Afjal, Trust Bank Limited Managing Director and CEO Humaira Azam addressed it, among others.