When many people are made accused in a single case they face extra financial burden, additional administrative hurdles and a lengthy trial procedure as the High Court does not allow more than 10 accused in one case to file a joint petition for seeking anticipatory bails.

Lawyers, defendants and court officials told New Age that all the accused in one case could previously seek anticipatory bails from the High Court through in a joint petition.

But, they noted, the High Court, prior to the special closure of courts on March 25, 2019 due to the Covid outbreak in Bangladesh, introduced a new rule that it would not hear, from then on, anticipatory bails of more than 10 accused in one joint petition, no matter how many accused in one case came for bail.

Later, in August 2021, the High Court benches, empowered to hear and dispose of anticipatory bail prayers, further slashed the number of accused to 3–5 from the 10 in a joint anticipatory bail petition during the Covid situation when physical appearance of both the accused and the lawyers was restricted.

Lawyers say that several hundred people accused in ‘fictitious and politically motivated’ cases are mainly becoming victims of the restriction on the number of applicants in one petition seeking anticipatory bails.

They say that the reduction in the number of petitioners in one joint anticipatory bail application also increases the backlog of new cases as many petitions need to be filed with the High Court for anticipatory bails instead of a single case involving many accused.

They further say that the backlog of cases is also increasing in the lower courts as the persons who are granted anticipatory bails by the High Court need to file petitions with the trial court concerned to seek fresh bails after the expiry of the period of the anticipatory bails.

Lawyers also say that the High Court and the lower courts are occupied with such bail petitions and the state has to spend taxpayers’ money to deal with such bail applications.

Supreme Court Bar Association secretary Md Abdun Nur Dulal told New Age that the bail seekers and the lawyers faced many difficulties as various benches introduced various methods to deal with anticipatory bail petitions for their convenience.

Dulal said that he had requested an HC bench, led by Justice Jahangir Hossain,  who has recently been elevated to the Appellate Division, to raise the number of petitioners for anticipatory bail set by a bench during the Covid pandemic.

‘Increasing the number of bail seekers in a joint petition will reduce their financial cost for filing anticipatory bail petitions as well as other sufferings,’ Dulal said.

‘I will take an initiative to address the difficulties of lawyers and the bail seekers after consulting the judges that hear anticipatory bail petitions,’ he added.

According to rights lawyer Sara Hossain, as the police have been given blanket powers of arresting people and making them accused in ‘fictitious cases’ during the opposition’s political programme there should be an arrangement so that hundreds of accused in a single case can seek bails together and are also granted bails.

‘The chief justice should instruct the High Court benches concerned to fix a standard number of anticipatory bail seekers in a single petition as neither 10 nor 100 people are a realistic figure to seek anticipatory bails in one petition at a time,’ jurist Shahdeen Malik said.

Different HC benches, Shahdeen noted, set different numbers of anticipatory bail applicants as there is no standard rule on how many accused should apply in a single petition for anticipatory bails.

Senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said that all but one HC bench was still following the Covid-time restrictions on the number of petitioners in an application seeking anticipatory bails.

The number of anticipatory bail seekers, Khurshid said, was reduced as it was difficult for the judges to identify the applicants  and accommodate them in a courtroom in case involving a large number of petitioners seeking anticipatory bails in one case,’ Khurshid added.

If one hundred persons are accused in one case, the lawyer said, a maximum of 10 accused are permitted to file one petition jointly seeking anticipatory bails, causing extra financial burden to other accused in the same case.

Lawyers said that previously more than 100 accused in one case had filed one petition with the High Court for anticipatory bails with a single court fee and in one power of attorney.

Only one HC bench, they said, allows filing one petition for maximum 20 accused but other benches have been hearing petitions filed by only 3–10 accused jointly seeking anticipatory bails.

Supreme Court lawyer Nasir Uddin Ahmed Ashim told New Age that the cost of preparing an anticipatory bail petition previously was Tk 5,000 to 7,000, including obtaining the certified copy and the cost of dispatch.

Now, he pointed out, the cost of each anticipatory bail petition has gone up to Tk 10,000 to 12,000.

Ashim said that the court fee was increased to Tk 70 from Tk 65 while the fee taken by the Supreme Court Bar Association for a power of attorney was increased to Tk 1,000 from Tk 900.

The lawyer said that the High Court had previously granted anticipatory bail to an accused in a case for four weeks while the duration could be extended several times until the trial court took up the case for disposal.

He said that the Appellate Division in a verdict delivered on February 24, 2014 laid down some guidelines for the High Court to follow while granting anticipatory bails.

‘Due to the restriction on the number of those seeking anticipatory bails in a petition, seekers not only suffer additional financial burden but also face various administrative hurdles in obtain copies of the bail orders and dispatching them from the High Court to the lower courts,’ lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir told New Age.

Bail seekers, Shishir further said, also suffer hurdles in the trial courts as each accused needs to file a fresh petition in that court with the copy of the anticipatory bail order to regularise their bail.

He called for an intervention by the chief justice in lifting the restriction on the number of bail applicants in a petition as lawyers and deputy attorney generals could help the courts in identifying the accused in the courtroom in the event a petition involved many applicants

Supreme Court spokesman Mohammad Saifur Rahman told New Age on Monday that the number of applicants in an anticipatory bail petition was reduced during the covid situation.

‘I am not aware if the limitation is still in force,’ he added.

He said that he was also not aware of any reduction in the number of applicants in an anticipatory bail petition.