Magistrates now can hold virtual hearings on remand prayers

All magistrates across the country can now virtually hold hearings on remand prayers of accused without their presence in courts, during the closure of courts following the coronavirus outbreak.

The Supreme Court yesterday cleared the barriers and directed all magistrates across the country for holding virtual hearings on remand prayers through videoconferencing with concerned jail authorities.

Before the hearing, the conducting magistrate will send a virtual link to the concerned jail authorities responsible for the accused.

After connecting to the jail authorities, the conducting magistrate will witness the accused through videoconferencing and hold a hearing on the remand prayer, said the gazette notification issued yesterday.

Before issuance of the gazette notification, it was a mandatory provision of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) that during the hearing of a remand prayer, the accusedmust be produced before the court.

Following closure of the courts, a large number of remand prayers remain pending with different courts as the accused cannot be produced before the court.

For example, Rapid Action Battalion on May 5 arrested cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, writer Mushtaq Ahmed, and two others--Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, an activist of a platform called 'Rastrachinta', and MinhajMannanEmon, a businessman--from the capital under the Digital Security Act, allegedly for making anti-government posts on Facebook.

Following their arrest, they were sent to jail by a Dhaka court. But their remand prayers remain pending for hearing as they were not produced before the magistrate due to theprevailing situation surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.

Their lawyers on several times submitted bail petitions, but the court refused to hear those petitions as remand prayers submitted by police remain pending.

As the Supreme Court cleared the barriers, the courts can dispose of the pending hearings on the remand prayers and the lawyers can file bail petition.

Due to the spread of Covid-19, the Supreme Court on March 26 declared shutdown of all courts across the country.

Later on May 10, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain directed all lower courts to hold bail petitions of accused, who are in jail custody, though videoconferencing.

Since then, virtual courts have been running their functions digitally.