INTRODUCTION

The Law-Courts of Bangladesh can be described as constituting the principal forum in which the activity of administering justice is carried on. They are entrusted with the duty of administering justice according to the Constitution and law.

The entire realm of law requires for its recognition and enforcement a set-up of courts, a hierarchy of courts. Different component parts of the legal system of Bangladesh have reference to the establishment of different courts in the country and the definition of their jurisdiction. The theory of law in this country is that every judicial authority has itself to have a foundation in law and it is the right of any party to the proceeding before it, on being advised that such a foundation is lacking, to challenge its authority to administer justice according to law.

The courts in Bangladesh may be classified in a number of ways. The most usual feature is the distinction made between courts with criminal and those with ~ jurisdiction. A distinction is made between courts of record and courts not of record, those of record having the authority to fine and imprison for contempt of their authority. The power to punish in respect of contempt of itself flows from the status of a court as a court of record, and this power has been mentioned in Article 108 of the Constitution which says that the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in this country is the court-of-record and have all the powers of such a court including the power to make any order for the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself. A distinction is also drawn between superior and subordinate or inferior courts, which helps to resolve the question of jurisdiction with particular reference to the onus cast upon the party denying it. Subordinate or inferior nouns are established td carry justice to every man's door. The superior courts are courts of general and appellate jurisdiction. A superior court is not subject to the control of any other court, except by way of appeal, and in which no matter is deemed to be beyond jurisdiction unless it is expressly shown to be so.

At the top of the hierarchy of courts does the Supreme Court of Bangladesh comprise the Appellate Division and the High Court Division, which have both civil and criminal jurisdiction. The High Court Division also enjoys a Constitutional jurisdiction commonly known as writ jurisdiction. The Appellate Division and the High Court Division together form the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. The hierarchy of civil courts consists of the Court of District and Additional District Judge, the Court of Subordinate Judge and the Court of Mansif. There is no separate Court of the Small Causes. Al some places, Subordinate Judges and Munsifs have been invested with powers of the Small Causes Court.

In most of the civil matters, the courts with original jurisdiction are Subordinate Judges' Courts and Munsifs Courts. These are civil courts at the base of the structure of civil courts. The Subordinate Judges have unlimited pecuniary jurisdiction, ranging from tuba six thousand to ten thousand. On the recommendation of the Law Committee reported in 1976, the limit of the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Courts of Small Causes has been lined at taka six thousand by the Law Reforms Ordinance, 19782 by amending the relevant statute. Hence, the Subordinate Judges and Munsifs exercising jurisdiction as Small Causes Courts enjoy enlarged pecuniary jurisdiction from June 1, 1979, in relevant matters.

The hierarchy of criminal courts consists of the Court of Sessions and Additional Sessions Judge, and the Court of Assistant Sessions Judge, as well as the Court of Metropolitan Magistrates, the Court of the Magistrate of the First Class, the Court of the Magistrate of the Second Class and the Court of the Magistrate of the Third Class. The Courts of District and Additional District Judges also function as Sessions and Additional Sessions Courts respectively when trying criminal cases. As a rule, Subordinate Judges are also given sessions power. A Subordinate Judge when trying criminal cases acts as Assistant Sessions Judge. In criminal matters, the courts with original Jurisdiction are the Magistrates Courts and the Sessions Courts. The Magistrates Courts deal with less serious offences while the Sessions Courts with more serious and of sentence up to capital one. Sessions Courts also exercise some revisional and appellate powers

The soiut7on of legal problems, as they arise in the course of litigation in courts of Bangladesh, very largely depend upon the correct interpretation of the Constitution and the statute law, the recognition and enforcement of such customary law as maybe deemed binding upon courts in the light of those principles which have been evolved by the courts themselves as determining the legal validity of custom, as also upon the correct analysis and application of the judicial precedents.

A bulk of legal principles, have themselves been evolved by the courts of law, and law in Bangladesh in a significant sense, is daily being made in the very process in which courts apply the law to the new situations that are bring presented to them from time to time for their adjudication. It is the courts that interpret and apply the taw, and although the theory of jurisprudence in this country is that in interpreting and applying the law they merely recognize and enforce the law such us is already in existence, never the less, the fact remains that, after the decision is rendered, there is in the statement of it to be discovered the "reason for the decision', the ratio decidendi as it called, which in its turn acquires, within limits, a binding value as a source of tow for the co-ordinate or subordinate courts as judicial precedents, In professing to apply the tow, the courts virtually create the law.