Dhaka: Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed on Saturday said alternative dispute resolution (ADR) system is essentially needed for reducing the backlogs of cases.

Citing a statistics, which shows the number of pending cases before all the Higher and Lower courts throughout the country is as high as 24, 54,360, the minister said, "there are no options before us but to go for ADR for disposal of these staggering numbers of cases."

Barrister Shafique Ahmed came up with this observation while speaking as the chief guest at a views exchange meeting on the code of civil procedure (amendment) act, 2012, relating to mandatory mediation method.

Presided over by Dhaka District and Sessions Court Judge Md.Adul Majid, the meeting was also attended by State Minister for Law, Advocate Kamrul Islam, MP, Rashed Khan Menon, MP, Mustafa Jalal Mohiuddin, MP, secretary of the Law Ministry Abu Saleh Sheikh Md. Jahirul Haque.

Mentioning the brighter sides of ADR, Barrister Shafique said if the disputes are not resolved than problems arises even between the brothers.

"But, do the issues really get resolved in the traditional court process? The need for ADR surfaces here. If the matter gets resolved by the ADR, both parties think that they have won. It's a win-win situation," Barrister Shafique said.

"The lawyers can think that their income will fall if the ADR is used. But the fact is otherwise. The clients do not hesitate to pay them higher fees if they feel that their cases would be resolved quickly," Shafique added amid huge claps of attending lawyers.

In his speech, Advocate Kamrul said, "We are trying to make the ADR system mandatory so that we can come out of the backlogs of cases."

"This system is being used in rural areas for centuries. Different kinds of cases are being resolved in the village courts without going to the doors of police or conventional courts," he added.

The state minister said, "the present government is holding the 21st August Grenade attack trial, Ten Trucks Arms trial, Trials of crimes against humanity, only to come out of the culture of getting away after committing crimes."

Law secretary Abu Saleh Sheikh Md. Jahirul Haque said the current government is doing everything to make the judicial system people- friendly.

Ends/AMA/08/06/13