In response to widespread criticism on social media, the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs has rescinded the approval for 50 judicial officers to attend training in India. The directive was issued by the Law and Justice Division of the ministry on Sunday, January 5.
Earlier, on December 30, following the recommendation of the Supreme Court, permission was granted for 50 judicial officers from subordinate courts to participate in training at the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal and the State Judicial Academies in India. According to a report by BSS on January 4, these officers included assistant judges, senior assistant judges, joint district and session judges, additional district and session judges, district and session judges, and equivalent-level officials. The training was scheduled to take place from February 10 to February 20.
However, following the publication of the report, social media users began to express sharp criticism, prompting the ministry to revoke the earlier approval. Copies of the cancellation letter have been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Election Commission Secretariat, the Registrar General of the Supreme Court, district and session judges, metropolitan judges, and other relevant ministries, divisions, and agencies.
It is worth mentioning that in April 2017, during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Bangladesh’s Supreme Court and India’s National Judicial Academy to enhance the training and capacity-building of Bangladeshi judicial officers.
Following the agreement, then-Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha stated on July 29, 2017, “In every country, there are training arrangements for judges of higher courts. In every state of India, there is a judiciary training institute for training high court judges. They also have a National Judicial Academy in Bhopal. We have signed an agreement for the training of our 1,500–1,600 judges there.”
For the first time, judicial officers from Bangladesh attended training in India from October 10 to October 24, 2017. Since then, several judges have undergone training in phases under this agreement.
