The Judicial Reform Commission prioritizes establishing the Cyber Appellate Tribunal

Dr. Md. Mahbub Hasan: The new Interim Government has taken many steps to reform the judicial system, and formed a judicial Reform Commission. Thus , it is public expectation and demand that they should set up a Cyber Appellate Tribunal as early as possible for ensure justice and stop miscarriage of justice.

The Government has set up the first Cyber  Tribunal in Dhaka in 2013. It had a wide jurisdiction over the country, all parts of the people of Bangladesh came to Dhaka for seeking justice, with spent a heavy personal cost and  valuable time. In order to solve the problem and easy access to cyber crime justice process, the government has set up more seven cyber tribunals for every divisional headquarters in 2021, and the total is now eight Tribunals.

According to Police Head Quarter Reports that huge numbers of cyber crimes have been committed in digital Bangladesh and day by day it is increasing, and different regional Tribunals are now promptly disposed Trial of cyber cases. But the appeal cases are not disposed of speedily due to not yet set up the Cyber Appellate Tribunal. As a result, justice seekers are deprived of getting fair speedy justice.

The jurisdiction of the Cyber Appellate Tribunal  to hear the appeal and settled as per the S. 83(1) of the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006 (ICT Act 2006); and S. 49(2) of the Cyber Security Act 2023 (CSA 2023). The CSA 2023 under S.2(1) (a) has  clearly defined as “the Appeal Tribunal” which means that “the Cyber Appeal Tribunal” has been formed under the S.82 of the ICT Act 2006. The Cyber Appellate Tribunal shall comprise of a chairman and two members and shall be appointed by the government as per the S. 82(2) of the said Act.

The chairman will be such a person who was a justice of the Supreme Court or is continuing his post or capable to be appointed as such and one of the members will be as an appointed judicial executive as a district judge or he may be retired and the other will be a person having the knowledge and experienced in information and technology that is prescribed (Section 82 (3) of the ICT Act 2006). The duration of the post of the chairman and the members of the post minimum 3 years and maximum 5 years and the conditions of their service will be decided by the government (Section 82(4) of the ICT Act 2006).

The power of the Appellate Tribunal to affirm, or set aside, modification or amending  the judgment of the Cyber Tribunal as per S.83(2) of the ICT Act 2006. The decision of the Cyber Appellate Tribunal  is the final and cannot be allowed appeal  for any  court of  Bangladesh, which means it is the highest Court relating to cyber cases. This Appellate Tribunal has not any original jurisdiction  that means  no  case  is allowed to file in this Tribunal , the nature of the court  as exercised  as a civil court in these context : (i) Summoning and examining of witnesses;  (ii)  Requiring production of document; ( iii) Receiving evidence; (iv)  Issuing commissions; and (v)  Reviewing its decision.

The ICT Act 2006 under S.84(“ If the Cyber Appellate Tribunal has not been established , whatever contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure , appeal shall be lodged in the High Court Division of Supreme Court against the verdict and order given by the Session Court or Cyber Tribunal, as the case may be.” ) states that in absence of the Cyber Appellate Tribunal , all appeal cases against the verdict of the Cyber Tribunal are to be filed in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court i.e. the High Court Division as the acting the Cyber  Appellate Tribunal.

However, the S.82(3) states that one of the members of the Appellate Tribunal should be  a person having adequate knowledge and experience in information and communication technology . On the compare to the High Court Division, it is two members bench and both of  members  of the bench  came from the law backgrounds- so far no one  came  from the IT background, and Appeal heard and dispose of in the conventional regular criminal bench.

Therefore, this is a question for how could ensure justice without knowledge of the IT background to try technology-based new kind of offense ? It is against sprite the ICT Act to ensure Appeal Rights .The Constitutional guaranteed fundamental rights to get justice for all and also conflicted with the International Convention of the Human Rights to ensure justice for all. Therefore, it is now demand for time to set up a Cyber Appeal Tribunal to ensure justice and speedily dispose of cyber crimes relating appeal cases, and it is also public demand that the government will take necessary as early as possible.

The writer is a Barrister and advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He specializes in Cyber Law and Comparative Cybercrime Justice System, and can be reached at lawmmh@yahoo.com.