The High Court directed the trial courts to complete the proceedings of the cases by August 31 against 139 undertrial prisoners who are in 68 jails across the country for more than seven years.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan passed the order on Monday after Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee panel lawyer Advocate Kumar Debul Dey prayed to the court for necessary order.
The court also asked to take action against the concerned investigation officers if the trial process does not end within the timeframe.
Besides, the lower courts concerned have been asked to submit the reports on the progress of the trial proceedings to the Supreme Court monitoring committee if they fail to finish the trial by Aug 31.
The Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee prepared the case details of the 139 undertrial prisoners after examining dockets of cases against total 256 prisoners who are in jails for more than seven years in different criminal cases.
On November 19 last year, the Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee sent a letter to the jail authorities seeking a list of the undertrial prisoners.
The authorities on December 31 last year submitted the list of 256 undertrial prisoners to the legal aid committee.