Separation of the Judiciary from Administrative branch of the Government - Should we be concerned?

In a recent write-up in the News From Bangladesh, Advocate K.M. Mukta strongly argues in favor of separation of Judiciary and Administrative branches of the government. The matter of separation between these two branches has long been debated since the birth of Pakistan. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was a great proponent himself. In general, most opposition politicians have favored the separation one time or another. However, when those same politicians went to power they seemed to dodge the matter for one reason or another.
The decision by the former Care Taker Government to eventually separate the two branches of the government was the fulfillment of that long awaited wish. It is expected that the current Jatiya Sangshad will ratify the Act. People's expectation is that it should work for their benefit and not make things any worse.
There is now doubt that the separation of judiciary from administration has really worked great for most western governments, which have a long history of democracy and respect for law and order. The question in the mind of many concerned Bangladeshis is: will this separation do the same good for a corruption infested society like Bangladesh where rumors are that judges and magistrates today are not above corruption and can be bought for the right price? I pray and hope that such concerns are not true. But if this view is true, then what sort of remedy can we expect for a victim whose rights have been violated and trust in the system misused?
A corrupt magistrate, e.g., can issue an arrest warrant against an innocent person and there is nothing that the latter could do but appeal to the same magistrate or try his luck in a higher court. Mind that appealing for bail petition in the High Court is neither free nor cheap, and may actually cost hundreds of lakh taka -- a sum of money, which is not so easily affordable to most Bangladeshis that don't have access to black (or ill-gotten) money.
Do my concerns here sound outlandish, improbable? But facts are sometimes stranger than fiction. For our purpose here, I shall cite two real examples, both from Chittagong. I am told by a court insider in the Judge's Court in Chittagong, who wanted to remain anonymous, that he knew about the payment of a lakh taka that was made last year by the (dishonest) pleader of a powerful land-grabbing syndicate to a corrupt judge so that the crime syndicate would not be found guilty for its horrendous crimes against some genuine land-owners. The crime, aided at the time by a powerful BNP-MP, included, among others -- destruction of some nine homes, eviction of 16 tenant families, and cutting down of hundreds of teak, mahogany, and other expensive trees from the land-owner's premises. For the sheer luck of it, fortunately for the victims who had filed the criminal case against the crime syndicate, the judge Nitai Chandra Saha was soon transferred to another court. A new judge, Ekramul Hoque Chowdhury - who was honest, found the crime syndicate guilty and sentenced nine members, each to a total of 6.5 year prison term. However, after serving only a month in the prison, all the members were able to get bail from the High Court. Free on bail, the syndicate has gone back to its old evil ways, and has been harassing genuine owners of the land with a plethora of false cases, let alone physical threats.
So ridiculous and untrue were all those charges against the genuine land owners that the Police Investigating Officer recommended charging the accusing syndicate members with Article 211 for harassment of the innocent. All such charges were eventually rejected by the court.
Seeing that their ploys to grabbing land would be futile, thanks to some honest, God-fearing officers of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police department, the syndicate members recently came up with an even more sinister scheme that included falsely accusing the genuine land owners of intention to kill the syndicate chief - Jaker Hosain Chowdhury – an ex-Madrasa daptari, who likes to introduce himself as Jaker master. He charged that on February 16, 2009, at the indication of a daughter of the land-owner, her husband had attacked him with an ax on his head. When he had fallen on the ground, her 82-year old father grabbed and squeezed his testicles (what else ?), while her sister's husband kicked him mercilessly. The alleged crime scene was the owner's premises situated on a very busy road (of course, Jaker claims it to be his!!), and the time of the crime - the broad day light of 1400 hours.
Interestingly, the land-owner's property, fearing any intrusion from the criminal syndicate, has been under Ansar guard for quite some time. A curious visit by any inquiring officer would have been sufficient to see the absolute absurdity of the charges. There was not an iota of truth in this false charge.
But this time, instead of going through the usual channel, which required police inquiry, the syndicate's pleader (an utterly dishonest and immoral scoundrel) went directly to a magistrate the next day and was able to get an arrest warrant issued that very day against the innocent landowners. No police inquiries were required and nothing was verified. No supporting medical reports were also attached with the charges. And yet, it was that easy to dupe or influence the additional CMM in issuing that arrest warrant against four absolutely innocent human beings. The two male accused were not even in the town on that day. The 82-year old land-owner takes a nap at the time, mentioned in the false charges. Interestingly, to misdirect the magistrate, he was shown as a 52-year old man, and his daughter who herself is 53 was shown as a 38-year old lady. The age of the two others accused were also lowered significantly. How could the magistrate overlook the improbable age difference between the daughter and the father, who are accused of committing the crime? Was it an honest mistake, an oversight, on the part of the magistrate?
You wonder - how could this happen in Bangladesh? Imagine the traumatic experience of the old man who could barely bend to find himself accused of squeezing someone else's balls, and then been issued an arrest warrant against him!
The charges were so ludicrous that when these were brought to the attention of the country's two top law men, they had a good laugh, but were genuinely perturbed as to what was happening in the country.
The law minister deplored the fact that corruption had become so rampant, there was very little that his office could stop such victimization of the innocent. He said that there were already too many good laws, but if judges and magistrates took bribe, duped by immoral pleaders and criminals, and did pass unjust and immoral verdicts that victimized the innocent, nothing much could be done to redress the problem. His office had no control over the affairs of the magistrate and that only the chief justice of the Supreme Court could do something to correct the wrong.
These are surely shocking facts of our judiciary system that we may not like to hear. Does the separation of this branch empower our citizens or transform them to lame ducks? Should we or should not we be concerned?

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