The High Court on Sunday directed family courts to dispose of cases filed over the custody of children in six months.
The law secretary and Supreme Court registrar general have been asked to deliver the directive to the family courts concerned.
A bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the directive, following a writ petition filed by a mother in Rangpur seeking custody of her child from her ex-husband.
The bench also ordered the family court in Dhaka to finish the trial proceedings of the case filed by the writ petitioner by March 31, 2022.
At the same time, the High Court said that the mother would be able to go to Rajshahi to see and spend time with the child, for which the concerned police commissioner has been asked to provide assistance.
Disposing of the writ, the court said it was sad and frustrating that the case filed in a family court regarding the custody of the child is still not settled, even 2-3 years after being filed.
Lawyer Motahar Hossain Sazu appeared for the mother, while lawyers Fawzia Karim Firoz and Kazi Maruful Alam appeared for the father of the child during the hearing.
According to the case, the writ petitioner, a woman from Rangpur, married a man from Rajshahi in 2011 and they became parents of a daughter in 2015. However, they got divorced in 2018 and since then the child has been living with the father.
The mother filed a case with the family court in Dhaka seeking custody of the child. As the family court failed to settle the case, she filed a writ petition in the HC.
Source: United News of Bangladesh