Speakers at a virtual discussion on Monday laid emphasis on enacting a new law for establishing city courts in city corporations to settle petty disputes and thus help reduce the backlogs of cases in the judicial system. They also said the empowerment of common people will get strengthened if city courts can be set up in a planned way in the light of village courts. Participating in the discussion, Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Md Tajul Islam welcomed the demand but said some sort of intervention should be there in place to ensure transparency and accountability of such an alternative dispute resolution system. The virtual discussion programme titled ‘City Court Act: Proposed Outline and Possibility of Implementation’ was organised jointly by the Madaripur Legal Aid Association (MLAA), Citizen’s Platform for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), and Nagorik Uddyog. Speaking at the programme, Tajul Islam said he support the initiative for establishing city courts to mitigate the small problems of city dwellers through arbitration.  “I appreciate you as you identify that there’re some separate incidents in the cities that can be resolved through city courts in the light of village ones. But there’s a challenge to ensure transparency of such a court,” he said. The minister said it has to be worked out first how transparency and accountability can be ensured in the activities of city courts before setting up those to prevent the abuse of power. “Even if any good person goes above accountability, he/she can be derailed.” Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said the formation of city courts is a very timely and justified proposal. “I fully support this proposal and it’s necessary to execute. I think city courts will be nice platforms to resolve trivial problems of the city dwellers and reduce pressure on the formal legal system.” He said many city dwellers come to him for having their many small problems settled, including land disputes, but the mayor and councillors do not have the legal jurisdiction to do so. “Union Parishads chairmen can resolve such problems through village courts.  So, I think, it’s necessary to constitute city courts as soon as possible.” Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Convenor of Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, said the urban population is growing by around 3 percent every year. “There’s a projection that around 50 percent of the population of Bangladesh will live in cities by 2035-2040.” With the rise in population, he said, various problems, relating to land, accommodation, transport, civic amenities, education, healthcare will also increase, and it will create a huge pressure on the traditional legal system. “Many such problems cannot be resolved now easily within a reasonable time for lack of adequate judges.” He said the city court system can be a measure for alternative dispute resolutions like in other countries of the world. “We've also prepared a draft framework of such a court for discussion and to draw the attention of policymakers.” READ: 167 juveniles secure bail from virtual courts amid lockdown “Getting justice is a basic right of citizens. The scope for deprivation of various rights and facilities begins when citizens are deprived of the right to justice. So, it’s important to set up the city court as part of ensuring justice for the city dwellers, especially for the disadvantaged ones,” he added. Mohammad Shahid, Chief Coordinator, MLAA made the keynote presentation. He said the people of this subcontinent, especially in Bangladesh, have been settling petty disputes at local levels traditionally without going to court. Shahid said village courts are established at union parishads under the Village Court Act 2006 while Dispute Arbitration Boards were constituted under the Arbitration of Disputes (municipal areas) Board Law 2004 to resolve the petty disputes. He said around two crore people live in 12 city corporations in the country, but there is no law for them to resolve petty disputes. Shahid said over 39 lakh cases are still pending in various courts of Bangladesh and the judicial system is simply overwhelmed. “It’s estimated that there’re 1,883 cases against one judge and there are only 0.73 judges for one lakh people. “So, we think the government should think of setting up the city court to reduce the backlogs of the cases.’” READ: Cabinet clears bill to increase financial jurisdiction of civil courts Presenting a draft framework of the city court, he said it will have the jurisdiction for settling minor social and family feuds, trivial clashes, stealing, and deception, embezzlement of assets, and insult and offensive attitude towards women.