Govt cancels 50 judicial officials’ participation in Feb training in India

The participation of 50 Bangladeshi judicial officials in the training sessions scheduled for February at the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal and a state judicial academy in India has been cancelled.

This decision was disclosed in a circular issued by the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs yesterday.

The circular stated that the Supreme Court directives led to the cancellation of the earlier approval for lower court judicial officials to attend the training programme from 10-20 February.

The initial approval for 50 officials was granted through a notification issued on 30 December.

The nominated officials included assistant judges, senior assistant judges, joint district and session judges, additional district and session judges, district and session judges, and other equivalent-level officers.

The earlier notification had mentioned that all expenses for the training would be borne by the Indian government, with no financial involvement from the government of Bangladesh.

The cancelled programme was part of a bilateral understanding signed in April 2017 during then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India.

Under the agreement, judicial training was arranged to enhance the capacity and expertise of Bangladeshi judicial officials at India's National Judicial Academy and other institutions.

Following this memorandum, in July 2017, then-chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha stated that every country in the world has training arrangements for high court judges.

"India has a judicial training institute in every state for training high court judges. They have a national judicial academy in Bhopal. We have signed an agreement to train 15-16 hundred of our judges there," the statement added.

Subsequently, in October 2017, judicial officials went to India for training for the first time. Since then, many judges have attended the training programme.