DIU Organized Roundtable Discussion on the Evidence (Amendment) Bill, 2022
Raisul Sourav : The Department of Law, Dhaka International University (DIU) has organized a roundtable discussion on the recently proposed the Evidence (Amendment) Bill, 2022 on 11 September at the Parliament embers’ Club of the capital. Begum Khodeja Nasrin Akter Hossain and Advocate Gloria Jharna Sarker, MP & members, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs joined the event as guests of honour while Barrister Shameem Haider Patwary, MP, member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs & Chairman, BoT, DIU presided over the session.
Prof. Dr. Md. Rizwanul Islam, Chair, School of Law, North South University; Barrister Ahmed Ehsanul Kabir, Asst. Prof., Dept. of Law, Jagannath University; ABM Imdadul Haque Khan, Chairman, Dept. of Law, Eastern University; Mostafa Hossain, Asst. Prof., School of Law, Brac Universiy; Saimum Reza Talukder, Sr. Lecturer, SoL, Brac University & Taqbir Huda, Member, Rape Law Reform Coalition delivered their opinion regarding the newly placed Evidence law before the parliament among others while Raisul Islam Sourav, Asst. Prof. & Chairperson, Dept. of Law, DIU moderated the event.
Speakers at the roundtable emphasized on public participation and easy access to any bill before passing a law in the parliament. At this time, they said it is praiseworthy initiative to make the century old Evidence Act a modern legislation by insertion of the provisions relating to digital evidence. However, there are many loopholes in the present draft like it uses the term digital record and electronic record interchangeably which is not correct. Again, there is risk of manipulation of digital evidence, so there must be well equipped forensic labs to verify the authenticity. The Evidence Act was enacted in 1872 in English while the present Bill refers to the Information Communication Technology Act to understand some terms which is written in Bangla that may create chaos to interpreting the law. Discussant opined the amendments in the proposed Bill are largely copied from the Indian Evidence Act whereas the Indian courts have already delivered verdicts to consider some provisions of their law.
Bad character evidence of the victim is not usually admissible under the proposed law except the permission of the court in exceptional cases while experts said in the roundtable that there is no standard fix in the Bill as to when they court may permit to bring character evidence in the court. Speakers urge to arrange more consultation with different stakeholders before passing this law as this piece law is very crucial to ensure justice in both civil and criminal proceedings. Prof. Dr. AWM Abdul Huq, Dean, Faculty of Law, DIU gave vote of thanks at the end and ensured that DIU will bring the recommendations to the parliament.
Raisul Sourav is an Assistant Professor of Law at Dhaka International University.
