Fahmin Al Fuad: A court’s verdict is not always the end of a story. Sometimes a judge misreads the evidence, a witness is believed too easily or an important point of law is missed. For a person who has been convicted, the only way back to justice may be an appeal. But in Bangladesh, an appeal is not as simple as it sounds. It takes time, money and patience, and many people give up long before it is heard. So, the question is worth asking: is an appeal a real right that anyone can use or a rare relief that only a few can reach?
Our legal system does recognize the idea that a decision can be wrong. The Code of Criminal Procedure lays out the paths an appeal can take. A person convicted by a lower court may go to a higher court and the higher court has wide power to look at the case again. It can examine the evidence, change the conviction, reduce the sentence, order a new trial or set the accused free. Where the death sentence is given, the law goes further. The High Court Division must review the case before the sentence can be carried out, and the Constitution gives a person sentenced to death or life imprisonment by the High Court Division the right to go to the Appellate Division. These safeguards exist because the cost of a mistake is too heavy to ignore, and a life cannot be given back once it is taken.
Yet the law also puts limits on appeal and these limits matter in daily life. A person who pleads guilty, for example, usually cannot appeal against the conviction itself. Very minor cases may also be closed to appeal. And time is strict, an appeal must be filed within a fixed period, which is short for people who are in jail, far from their lawyers and unsure of their rights. A late filing may be accepted only if the court is satisfied with the reason for delay and that is never certain. A person who does not know the deadline or who cannot afford the fee and copies of the court papers in time, may lose the chance forever.
The bigger problem, however, is not what the law says but how long the process takes. Our higher courts carry a heavy load of pending cases. Some appeals wait for years before they are even taken up for hearing, and a final decision may take much longer. During this time, the convicted person usually remains in prison. If the appeal succeeds in the end, the person has already served a large part of a sentence that should never have been given. If it fails, the years of waiting still weigh on the family. The court can suspend a sentence and grant bail while an appeal is pending, but this depends on the judge’s discretion and, once again, on having a good lawyer to ask for it. Justice that comes very late can feel like justice denied.
Money makes the gap wider. An appeal needs lawyers, paperwork and many visits to court, and every step costs something. A wealthy accused can hire senior counsel and keep pushing the case forward. A poor accused may depend on a tired family that has already spent everything on the trial. Legal aid exists on paper, but many people do not know about it, and it does not always reach the prison gate when it is needed. When the quality of a person’s defence depends on the size of their wallet, the right of appeal becomes unequal in practice.
The state too has a place in this discussion. The law allows the government to appeal against an acquittal, and a private complainant may also seek permission to do so. This is fair when a clear error has freed a dangerous person. But it should be used with care. A person who has already gone through a long trial and been found not guilty should not be pulled into another long fight without strong reasons. If appeals against acquittal become routine, the peace that an acquittal is meant to bring will never really arrive.
There are simple steps that could make appeal more real. Every convicted person should be told, in plain language and at the time of sentence, about the right to appeal and the time limit. Prisons could keep a record of every inmate whose appeal is pending and alert the authorities when the wait grows too long. Legal aid lawyers should be available to prepare appeals for those who cannot pay and appeals from people held in jail, especially in long-sentence and death cases, should be heard first. Courts could also give short written reasons when they refuse to suspend a sentence, so that the decision is clear and open to review. None of this needs a new law. It needs attention and will.
So, is appeal a right or a rare relief? On paper, it is a right and an important one. In practice, it can feel like a relief that only the informed, the funded and the patient can reach. A fair justice system does not leave its second chance to luck. Until every convicted person, rich or poor, can use the appeal as easily as the law promises, the question in this title will stay open.
Student, Department of Law, Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
