Introduction:

1.What is the problem?

Bangladesh is one of the higher populated country all over the world. For this
reason violence can be easily occurred. Also people are not well educated that’s
why they can do anything before realizing the actual damage.Violance against
women and child can be easily done without any question arise.If there is any
question arise,that time is protest only by poster faston some days later there is
nothing to stay.Victims of violence cannot go to the tribunal easily because of
hasitation they can go or not, if they go proceding is very slow and lengthy such
as investigation also in the tribunal create some unexpected scenary. Filing of
false cases, lack of evidence ,out of court settlement and weak police
investigation are some of the main reason for low conviction rate under the
woman and children repression prevention act 2000

2. Why is it important to solve the problem?

These are different offences that usually involve preventing police officer from
arresting someone, or from performing other law enforcement activities.They
can,however arise other factual scenario. They also can be charged as distinct
offences by themselves, or in conjunction with charges for other. For these
reason as early as possible need to solve the problem otherwise victim will not
get their constitutional right those are, every people have right to live also
,every people are equal before law.

3.why is it difficult?
For many people made unfairly redundant in this crisis,employment tribunals
will offer the sole route to being reinstated or receiving appropriate
compensation.They are only place some statutory employment right can
actually be enforced. The alternative redress option are limited and state
enforcement of rights is ineffective.For many people by this redundancy crisis,

Employment tribunal will offer the only way to protecting their right.This is
partly because of tribunal limit.which is false and which is right is not find out
easily for this reason need to investigate in route stage.

4.What is your approach?

Every problem must have a solution,first we should find out the false allegation
and which is actual allegation,if we found that time easier to find out the
solution,also we should encourage the victim to filed a case before the tribunal
specially indicate those person who are originally victim, if once filed a casethe
aggrieved party by the order,judgment or punishment imposed by the
Tribunal,can appeal to the Highcourt Division within the period of sixty days
against such order,judgment or punishment.If the opposite entity is engaging
unfair practice an appeal to a negative judgment could reverse that case.

5.How is different from other?

We know that damage equal to punishment ,if actual damage occurred the
guilty person must be convicted at any cost,responsibility must be taken by the
relevant person,if the tribunal thinks that any woman or child is needed to be
kept in safe custody at any stage of trial of an offence ,the tribunal can direct to
keep the woman or child out of the jail and under the custody of government
authority determined by the government for this purpose.the tribunal must have
ensure the punishment to the guilty person,if they ensure ,the victim will go to
the tribunal. Otherwise the tribunal will not get the actual success.Within a short
period of time judgment must be given, also need to development of
employment quality with present of sincerity. Though some people already
analysis this problem but my achievement in this subject different from other
rest of the paper i will prove that.

Background
The points to one of the most glaring failure in the government efforts to
address not only acid violence but gender based violence more broadly,the
barriers to securing justice.Bangladeshi people are not precautious about the law
and order for this reason the guilty person cope up with easily from the
restriction of law and order.In the village site law and order get their vulnerable
position. people disregard the law.they do not want to go to court, they believe
that even if they go to court,they will not get proper justice because the court
protect the rich not to poor, this is the practical scenario of village ,on the other
hand the rich person get their benefit easily, can you imagine ?how is that
possible ,the tribunal has ability to do that but they make a difference between
poor and rich people.

On the other side ,if any rich people commits a crime, they come out the
obligation of the law in any way, the rich can dominant the law.

That’s why we need to change the system as early as possible if we don’t people
will not come to the tribunal. Firstly we should take to any proper step for
solving the problem, secondly,we should create the proper envirionment in the
tribunal for giving actual punishment to the guilty person. Thirdly,we should
maintain equality before law.fourthly, we should change our mentality about
crime. fifthly we should maintain our peace and order.

Another way we should change our motive to solve the problem, such as
educated people are aware of their right,also those are not educated they are not
aware about their right for this reason we need to announce regurarly about the
positive side of law. We can create awareness through paper, radio, television
and other.

There must be strong commitment to bring him to be the punishment of other.I

have found another problem many woman a file a case before the tribunal
without any legal cause. That means false allegation are arised.

Can you imagine ? in 2017 filed a case before the tribunal 15000 but when
through investigation by officer the veracity of 4000 cases could not be found
On the other side only 527 get punishment rest of the cases was dismissed.

Technical contribution

Over the year this is exhibited that conviction in the violence against woman
and child cases cannot sustain because of the improper application of law,legal
infirmity, and lack of sound reasoning in the trial court decision, excessive use
of jurisdiction by the trial court,framing of wrong charge by the tribunal and
inappropriate trial procedure several recommendation to mitigate the current
trend of low conviction rate,it is clarified that by identifying the level and
reason behind low conviction rate in the violence against woman and child.

This research is in any way does not advocate for the rate of conviction to be
high rather it is expects a proper administration of justice aiming to uphold the
right of the poor and marginalized victim of violance .
The part of legislative inconsistancies also initiate with some hypotheses. the
initial hypotheses was that inconsistence provision of the selected the violence
against legislation which may affect the administration of justice.
Accordingly data has been collected from participants of quantitative interview;

Asking them whether they experience any legislative inconsistency in the

violence against woman legislation. Most of the participant asnwerd that there is
no glaring inconsistency but there are some problems which should be resolved
by the legislative by legislative amendment. Later the above mentioned finding
has been cross verified by a qualitative comparison of the selected violence
against woman and child legislations,thus it is found that indeed there are some
procedural and substantive inconsistancies in the selected violence against
woman and child legislation. The provision of dowry related offences in the nari
o shishu nirjaton daman ain 2000 and in the dowry prohibition act 1980 should
be more consistant . all the dowry related offences should be dealt by one
single legislation. Currently dowry related offence are being dealt in the both
nari o shishu nirjaton daman ain 2000 and dowry prohibition act 1980.

The nari o shisu nirjatan daman tribunal may be given with the power of
granting bail at any stage of the procedeing ,the provision relating to the custody
of child in domestic violence act 2010 in the family courts ordinance 1985
should be consistent and clear mentioning explicitly to which forum one should
go in any particular situation. Moreover ,the definition of child should be
uniform in all the vaiolation aginst woman legislation.

Methodology:

Filing of false cases, lack of evidence ,out of court settlement and weak police
investigation are some of the main reason for low conviction rate under the
woman and children repression prevention act 2000,

Firstly, we should find out the nature of case which is false or not, if we found
that case has accurate than we should through procceding, otherwise we should
dismiss the case also those who make false allegations must be given exemplary
punishment.
Secondly , we should take step for preventing the filing false cases, so that
actual offender will get punishment.

Thirdly , the tribunal can get relax from extra burden of false allegation by the
way the tribunal can concentrate the actual cases than we can get best solutions

Fourthly , we should encourage aggrieved party to solve the problem mutualy

before filing a case that time huge number of pity case can be solved easily.

Fifthly, we should create awareness amongs the people so that they can imagine
what should I do, by the simple awareness huge number of backlogs will be
settled ,tribunal can his task without any extra burden.

Sixthly, firstly we have taken dicision for going to village for more data
collection that time we saw the practical scenario of fact of my research,More
than 80% problem can be easily solved but they cant do that for the provocation
of other such as family member ,outsided family member,personal aggression,
we can specially say about advocate those person are takes responsibility for
solving the who are creates.
Seventhly, when we talking about the child that time creates problem about the
custody of the child, so can we called family related matter when they get
divorced or not. If they divorced that time question arise about custody,though
they can easily solved the problem but they cant do that for this creates extra
burden over the court.

Eightly ,child abuse at home is another problem ,now a days we have seen child
abuse is very easier offence, aggrieved child cant go to the tribunal because of
their supportive staff. So we should take special step for solving the problem.

We should do anything which is useful for solving the fact,that’s why

overwhelming the every peace of problem,when we accumulate that time we get
more than 70% cases filed for harassement of other. we have seen the scenario
the cases over tribunal, for this low conviction rate are stay at tribunal.
Analysis

This part critically examines the level of low conviction rate in the violence
against woman cases under the Nari-oSishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 and the
underlying reasons behind with reference to the quantitative and qualitative
data. During the initial literature it has been found that conviction rate in the
violence against woman cases is abysmally low.
Following this,tests the level of this rate by illustrating firstly, the quantitative
survey result from the justice sector agencies of Dhaka, Comilla and Pabna and
secondly, by analyzing the statistics on the violence against woman cases filed
at the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals of the abovementioned three
districts. If finds that the conviction rate is really low, then will look for the
underlying reasons for low conviction.
Current research has gone through several literatures and found no single study
on this particular topic. Rather, they either have focus on the reasons for low
conviction rate in criminal cases, in general or in the violence against woman
cases, in particular.
However, based on those literatures, this research hypothesizes some reasons
behind the low conviction rate in the violence against woman cases under the
2000 Act. To testify those hypotheses, this research primarily relies on the
quantitative and qualitative questionnaire based survey result. Besides,
judgments of the Supreme Court and the Trial Court in the violence against
woman cases are examined for specifically determining the reasons behind the
low rate of conviction.

IS THE CONVICTION RATE LOW IN THE VIOLANCE AGAINST

WOMAN CASES?

Hypothesis:
Conviction rate is extremely low in the violence against woman cases under the
Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000.

Question asked:
Is the conviction rate in the violence against woman cases under the Nari-o-
Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 generally low?
Quantitative data:
The justice sector agencies,judges, public prosecutors and defense lawyers of all
the Nari-o-Sishu Tribunals in Comilla who have been interviewed during the
field visit of this research unanimously have opined that the cases filed at the
Nari-o-Sishu Tribunal generally have an extreme low rate of conviction.
However, the magnitude varies as per the nature of the offence. According to
majority of the participants, the offence of causing death or attempting to cause
death for dowry [Section 11(a)], causing grievous hurt for dowry [Section
11(b)], causing simple hurt for dowry [section 11(c)] have the lowest rate of
conviction. By contrast, kidnapping (section 7), rape [section 9(a)], causing
death after rape [section 9(b)], causing death or hurt by gang rape [section 9(c)]
have the highest rate of conviction.
The finding, however, contradicts with the statement that the offence of rape has
the lowest rate of conviction. Besides, being a very much gender-sensitive issue
in a patriarchal society it is the least reported crime and has the highest number
of pending cases.
This finding is confirmed by the statistics collected from the said tribunals. This
confirmation is significant to show the actual level of „extreme low rate of
conviction‟. It is to be mentioned that due to unavailability of data, among all
the tribunals, data of Tribunal on the total number of case, pending case and
disposed case, number of acquittal and conviction is not included in the
following tables and graphs.
 Table Consolidated data from Nari-o-Shisu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals of
comilla
Nari o Shishu Nirjaton Daman Tribunal No;1 Description from January to
decmber 2018;

Class Pending Number Number Number Number Number In After full trial Without
Of cases Of Of Of Of of Cases proceding Full
litigation cases settled Pending acquitte Convicte Settled Trial
filed case case d d Without Number
accused accused trial Convicte Acquitte Of
d d acquittal
person Of
accused

Session 3714 757 2934 1537 361 386 1445 1544

case

Session 1263 1052 1068 128

appeal

total 4977 1809 4002 1665 361 386 1445 1544

This above table clearify the practical scenario of nari o shisu nirjaton daman
tribunal lower conviction rate ,if we think a little deeper we can catch the
problem’.
Filed a case 757 before tribunal in 2018 , previous pending case3754 also
settled case 2934 further pending case1537, number of acquitted accused 361,
specially can be said that there is no convicted person.
Also we can say that after full trial proceding there is no one can be convicted.
Without full trial number of acquittal is high rate such above number 1544.there
are so many false case filed before the tribunal,this statistics shows us so

Table Consolidated data from Nari-o-Shisu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals of

comilla
Nari o Shishu Nirjaton Daman Tribunal No;2 comperative table of 2018 to 2019

Class of year previous Filed Number Total Number Number In the

litigation one cases of case Of settled Of case trial
attainment case transfer proceding

Nari o 2018 970 326 1296 299 50 947

shishu

2019 947 398 1345 281 06 1058

shishu 2018

2019 134 134

Human 2018
trafficking

2019 07 07 07
Cp 2018 373 317 690 254 436

2019 436 652 1088 689 399

This above table clearify the practical scenario of nari o shisu nirjaton daman
tribunal lower conviction rate ,if we think a little deeper we can catch the
problem.

We have shown that the comperative view of 2018 to 2019..there are so many
difference between filed case and settled case also conviction rate is low down
gradually.

Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunal ; 2

Information of January 2020

class The Number Number This month settlement Total Pending

of Previous Of Of trial Settled case
litigati one attainmen procedin case
on t g
convicted acquittal discharge otherway

Nari o 1058 51 1109 25 08 02 35 1074

shishu

Child 130 11 141 01 01 140

Huma O7 01 08 08
n
traffic
king

Court 399 83 482 82 82 400

petitio
n

total 1594 146 1740 26 08 84 118 1622

This above table clearify the practical scenario of nari o shisu nirjaton daman
tribunal lower conviction rate ,if we think a little deeper we can catch the
problem.
Table Consolidated data from Nari-o-Shisu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals of
comilla
Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunal No.3

Courts Brought to trial Disposed of pending

Nari o shishu 568+365=933 246 682

Court petition 259+444=703 358 342

Shishu case 133 03 127

Human 04 00 04
trafficking

Grand total 1773 607 1155

This above table clearify the practical scenario of nari o shisu nirjaton daman
tribunal lower conviction rate ,if we think a little deeper we can catch the
problem.
Nari o Shishu Nirjaton Daman Tribunal No.3 according to January 2020

Class of The attainme Number This month settlement Total Pending

litigatio previous nt Of Settlem cases
n one pending ent of
cases convicte acquittal Dischar other cases
d ge
Nari o 682 49 731 14 20 34 697
shisu

Court 342 64 406 33 25 60 346

petition

Child 127 03 130 01 01 129

cases

Human 04 02 06 06
trafficki
ng

Total 1155 118 1273 14 54 25 95 1178

Cases

This above table clearify the practical scenario of nari o shisu nirjaton daman
tribunal lower conviction rate ,if we think a little deeper we can catch the
problem.
List of task performed at the time of submission; Nari o Shisu Nirjatan Daman
Tribunal No.1 january to December 2020
Class of The Number Total Number of case settled others Total Under
litigation previous Of case number settled trial
one filed convicte acquittal discharg case procedin
d e g
Nari o 1537 631 2168 03 546 287 25 861 1307
shishu

Court of 128 1033 1161 570 570 591

petition

Child 250 250 32 01 33 217

case

Human 08 08 08
trafficki
ng

total 1665 1922 3587 03 578 288 595 1464 2123

Overall, this table shows that over the 3 year period from 2018 to 2020, there
was a fluctuant trend in the percentage of case disposal. By contrast, the
percentage of conviction starting from 2018 showed a decreasing trend up to
2020. Looking at the detail, among all the years, 2018 In the nari o shishu
nirjatan daman tribunal shows us 3714 pending cases number of settled cases
2934 number of acquittal 361 without full trial proceeding 386 cases settled,
actually acquittal number1445,number of dishcharge case without trial
proceeding1544.

In the same way nari o shishu nirjatan daman tribunal no.2 at comilla in 2018
pendig case 970 ,attainment of case 326, total case appeared 1296 also number
of settled case 299 ,under trial proceeding 987 cases,

In 2019 number of pending case is 1058, on the other hand in child cases 2018
and 2019 number of cases pending is 130, on the other side in case of human
trafficking and court petition the number of pending cases is 436,399.

According to nari o shishu nirjatan daman tribunal no.3 january 2020.In case of
woman and child pending case 682 under trial proceeding is 731also acquittal
and discharge number 48.
In case of court petition 342 also under trial proceeding 406 also child case 127
pending case ,specially human trafficking pending case number 06.

Statement showing the number of cases brought to trial disposed of and pending
trial in the court of nari o shishu nirjatan daman tribunal no.3

In the nari o shishu case brought to trial 933 and disposed of 246 pending case
682, In court petition 703 disposed of 358 and number of pending cases 342.
In shishu case 133 disposed of 3 pending case 127. In the case of human
trafficking 4 pending case. Total number of pending case is 1155.
This above scenario are practical situation in the tribunal,there are huge number
of filing false cases in the tribunal scenary shows us that brought to case for trial
are huge number but acquittal rate and discharge rate much more than to be
accused, also the number of case settled without trial number is not less than the
rate of settled case.

The actual number of low conviction rate is higher than previous year beacause
of

1.insufficient police investigation

2.harshness of punishment
3.case backlog
4.weakness of presentation of case by the prosecution
5.lack of proper and adequate evidence
6.filing of false cases
7.out of court settlement
8.technicalities of the act

There are so many difficulties in the tribunal for low rate of conviction but
specifically we can say that brought to case before the tribunal more than 80%
cases are false and ridiculous, on the other side there are so many person
inspired by other for the reason of harshness of punishment, also we can say
that this tribunal try to settled case imidiately this chance taken by the party for
their benefit, but actually they get no benefit.

Only they can ensure that extra burden upon the tribunal, for this reason we
have seen the low rate of conviction in the tribunal.
Related work:

There are so many people already research in the question of low rate
conviction in the tribunal, they have been shown many important things for
solving the problem, it was fantastic also enthusiastic with some material it will
be helpful to the tribunal.

But I have a plan ,if we execute it in future it will be much more effective,

Ahsanul karim says that,

We should do something in the tribunal so that we can realize the actual party in
the tribunal before filing the case, also we first determined the mind cooperative
for other than we can develop the actual rate.

Fazle hasan abed says that,

lack of evidence as a reason for low conviction rate in the tribunal. And the
qualitative data points out that among all types of evidence, medical evidence is
mostly unavailable or if available, appear as false and fabricated in many cases.
The unavailability of medical evidence occurs either because the doctor or
medical officer cannot be found or they do not cooperate. Medical examinations
are also not executed in a timely manner. This lead to delay in the examination
of witness and trial. The offence that is mostly affected by inadequate medical
evidence is rape. Another interesting point that has been found is that the
evidence of false witnesses hampers the trial proceeding for this reason we saw
the huge backlogs.

According to my research ;

Majority of the participants believe that filing of false case under the Nari-o-
Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 is a reason for low conviction rate. The medical
officer, investigation officer and even lawyers may have a part in preparing and
presenting false cases. In this regard, the interviewees‟ have recommended that
while taking cognizance of an offence, the trial court should be more cautious

CASE-STUDIES FORM THE NARI-O-SISHU TRIBUANL COMILLA:

The following brief case studies of the Trial Court‟s judgments show how,
some of these reasons,

lack of evidence, out of court settlement, filing of false case results into the
order of no-conviction.

1.Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 84/2011: Comilla. This case on sexual harassment

had been logged before the court due to non-taking of the case by police. Based
upon the investigation of female vice chairman of Comilla Sador (South) the
case had been formally appeared before court under the section 10/30 of the
Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000. But during trial, the plaintiff didn‟t
present the required testimony and other documentary evidences in support of
their complaint. They presented only one witness who was considered
insufficient by the court as the witness could not confirm the involvement of the
accused persons. Moreover, the plaintiff subsequently informed the court that
they were not willing to continue the case. Finally, the case was dismissed.
Date of judgment: April 06, 2015.

2.Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 124/2010: Comilla. Due to the rejection from

police, the case was filed at the court. The case was on the demand of dowry
and consequent physical torture by the victim‟s husband and in-laws. On
direction of the court, after police investigation the case had been appeared
before court under section 11(c)/ 30 of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain
2000. During trail, the plaintiff didn‟t present sufficient witness and other
essential evidences to support her complain. Moreover, at one stage of the trail,
the victim formally informed the court that the complaint against husband was
not rather the case was due to misunderstanding with her husband. The case was
dismissed. Date of judgment: February 08, 2015.
3.Nari-o-Shishu mamla no. 199/2013: Comilla. Under section 9(4) (b) of the
Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 the case was logged at the tribunal. The
case was on sexual harassment and attempt to rape. During trail, only two
witnesses were present but evidence provided by them was regard insufficient
and irrelevant by the tribunal. Moreover, the victim as PW-1 and her husband as
PW-2, formally informed the court that issue of the case was not true, rather,
they had been persuaded by other family members to file the case. Finally, the
case was dismissed. Date of judgment: April 06, 2015.

4.Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 460/2012: Comilla. As a result of the rejection

from police, plaintiff filed the case at the tribunal under 11(c)/30 of the Nari-o-
Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 on accusing her husband Md. Manik Miah for
dowry and torture. In support of their complaint, the plaintiff presented only two
witnesses but the court did not find anything truthful to go against the accused.
Moreover, the plaintiff, Aklima as P.W-1 and her father as P.W.-2 formally
informed the court there had nothing had happened, it was only family quarrel
between husband & wife. Finally, the case was dismissed.

This above case shows us that we should must be cautious about some task
before proceeding than we could reach our goal such;

1.No provision for out of court settlement.

2. If the victim (girl) belongs to a reputed family, often they hesitate to come
forward with a case due to social prestige hence out of Court settlement occurs

3. Threat might play a factor but not always

4. Monetary compensation is a factor.

5. Social barrier play a major role in out of Court settlement

6. Sometimes the victims file false cases to harass the husband in which case
out of Court settlement occurs quite often

7. In case of lengthy proceedings, the victim gets reluctant to proceed with her
case so she agrees to out of Court settlement.

8. Heavy workload of the judge.

9. Non-appearance of the witness.

10. Backlog of cases is a reason for delay in trial.

11. Coordination among the justice sector agencies should be enhanced.

12. More Nari-o-Sishu Tribunal can be established. Judges should be appointed

at the tribunal where there is no judge.

This above way we can settled the case easily but my research not to encourage
high rate of conviction rate rather we encourage the actual settlement of case so
that no one can harassment only for ridiculous attitude.

Also we should ensure that punctuality in the tribunal, cooperative attitude must
be ensure,than only we will get real scenario of tribunal, original case will be
filed and conviction rate will be meaningful, aggrieved party will come before
the court for solving their problem, and tribunal peacefully solved the problem.

This research is in any way does not advocate for the rate of conviction to be
high rather it is expects a proper administration of justice aiming to uphold the
right of the poor and marginalized victim of violence.
Conclusion and recommendation;
Being the concluding part, this chapter summarizes some of the
recommendations based on the findings of the present research. The data
analysis and the findings were intended to be objective so that it can be a
helpful guide for the justice sector agencies. Therefore, the recommendations
summarized in this chapter are non-exhaustive in nature.

Although section 17 of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain provides

punishment for filling of false cases, the findings of the tribunal visits reveal
that most of the cases filed under this Act are false and fabricated. These cases
are filed to take revenge out of personal enmity or to satisfy proprietary interest
or to get redress for other grievance against the accused. Sometimes, law
enforcing agency, particularly the investigating officer is also involved in such
instances.

From the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data collected from the
justice sector agencies of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatnan Daman Tribunals of
Dhaka, Comilla and Pabna it is now evident that conviction rate in the violence
against woman and child cases under the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain
2000 is extremely low.
The eight hypotheses that imply the reasons for this low conviction rate also
have been appropriately confirmed by the data analysis. In addition to those
hypotheses, the judgments of the Supreme Court, however, significantly
observe some important reasons for low conviction rate including the non
application of judicial mind by the trial court.
Over the years, this is exhibited thorough impropriety, legal infirmity, and lack
of sound reasoning in the trial court‟s decision, excessive use of jurisdiction by
the trail court, framing of wrong charge by the Tribunal, and inappropriate
procedure of trial. This research, therefore, concludes by contending that while
all the reasons as mentioned in the hypothesis are the underlying reasons, non
application of judicial mind by the trial court undeniably adds an important
factor that is responsible for the low conviction rate in the violence against
woman cases.
Based on the suggestions of the justice sector agencies, and analysis of relevant
judicial decisions and literatures, this research recommends as follows
a) The key justice sector agencies who are entrusted with the duty to collect and
present the evidence before the court, police officers, medical officers, and
public prosecutors should be more concerned about the rights of the victims and
their corresponding duties.
b) More senior, experienced and knowledgeable persons should be appointed as
the Public Prosecutors of the violence against woman and child Tribunals.
c) The public prosecutors should not be negligent and should be more
cooperative to the victims.
d) There should be strict legal accountability mechanism for the public
prosecutors.
e) To prevent the abuse of justice, harshness of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan
Daman Ain 2000 is suggested to be mitigated by the justice sector agencies.
f) To minimize the rate of filing of false cases, the trial court should be more
cautious in taking cognizance of an offence and should take recourse to section
17 of the Nari-oSishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 to punish anyone who files a
false case.
g) It is found that although there is no provision for out of court settlement in
the 2000 Act; judges allow it as the least worst option when in a case the victim
herself is unwilling to continue the case. In this context, strict application of the
Act can improve the current situation.
h) A coordinated effort among all the justice sector agencies, establishment of
more Nari-o-Shishu tribunals, and appointment of judge at the tribunal where
there is no judge can reduce case backlog.
i) In addition to the suggestions made by the justice sector agencies during the
field visits of this research to curb the low rate of conviction, some of the
judgments of the Supreme Court demonstrate that judges of the tribunal are
expected to apply their judicial mind while dealing with the VAW cases under
the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000.
j) The provisions of punishment in the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000
should be revised. Harsher punishment cannot mitigate the offence rather may
result into a low rate of conviction in the VAW cases. Punishment for the VAW
offences should, therefore, be proportionate to the gravity of the offence.
k) The Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 should provide for a wider
space of discretion of the Judges for sentencing the offender.
l) Medical evidence collection process for the VAW cases should be more
women friendly and appointment of lady doctors for this purpose is strongly
recommended.
m) Record keeping of the violence against woman and child cases should be
smarter. Recourse of modern technology may be taken. A paperless judiciary is
highly recommended in this regard.
n) Creating awareness about legal aid should be emphasized. It should however,
be made clear that by identifying the level and reasons behind low conviction
rate in the violence against woman and child cases, this research in any way
does not advocate for the conviction rate to be high, rather, it expects for a
proper administration of justice that aims to uphold the rights of the poor and
marginalized victims of the violence as envisioned in the Act of 2000.
Through quantitative and qualitative data analysis, a number of inconsistencies
are identified in this research in the specific VAW legislations namely, the Nari-
oShishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000,.
This research could not find any provision in these legislations to be directly
contradictory to any other provision. However, a number of provisions are
identified which require more clarification or little amendments so that they can
operate harmoniously without creating confusions.
There is overlapping in the subject matters dealt by these four specific VAW
legislations. Dowry related offences are partly dealt in the Nari-o-Shishu
Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 and partly dealt in the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980.
Bail granting power in the GR cases till the completion of investigation under
the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 should be expressly conferred by
this Act. It is observed by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in a number of
cases that the special Tribunals constituted under the Nari-oShishu Nirjatan
Daman Ain 2000 often goes beyond their jurisdiction in trying the VAW cases.
The Tribunals have been found committing misconstruction of law both
procedural and substantive at several instances. Following are the
recommendations to find out an effective solution to this problem-
(a) All the offences related to dowry should be dealt comprehensively by any
single legislation either by the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 or by
the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980.
(b) The definition of “Dowry” given in the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain
2000 and in the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980 should be made uniform.
Currently, different terminologies are used in these two legislations to define
“Dowry”.
(c) The definition of “Child” given by the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain
2000 and the Domestic Violence Act 2010 should be made consistent. At
present, these two legislations prescribe two different categories of age limits to
define “Child”.
(d) Bail related provisions in the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000
should be made more clarified. The Nari-O-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals
should be conferred with the bail granting power from the very beginning of the
proceeding be it a Complaint Registered (CR) case or a General Registered
(GR) case.
The recommendations given above being non-exhaustive, present research
suggests that the data collected and presented in the work as well as the legal
analysis made may be a basis of work in the future.