Speaking at the dialogue in the city on Saturday, they said justice is delayed in these cases due to absence of proper monitoring and skilled investigation agency.

Acid Survivors Foundation organised the dialogue titled "fate of the acid throwing cases: studies of appeal in the higher courts," which was participated by judges, legal practitioners and NGO activists.

Monira Rahman, executive director of the foundation, suggested that a monitoring cell can be formed to make regular follow-up of the cases pending in the higher courts.

Citing a study report, she said the trial courts between 2000 and 2005 convicted 282 acid throwers in 116 cases. A total of 1,601 incidents took place during the period.

Of the convicts, 43 were awarded death penalty while 121 were sentenced to life term. All the convicts of death sentence have appealed to the higher court and they cannot be executed unless the higher courts confirm their sentence.

Monira however said it is not possible to compare between the rate of conviction and the number of incidents took place during the period as the convictions are from the past incidents. "It gives a general idea about the rate of disposal by the trial courts."

About the delay in disposal of the cases, lawyers told the meeting that the lower courts are now completing the trials within shorter period of time compared to the past, but the cases remain pending for long in the higher courts.

Earlier, investigators had to complete investigations of acid throwing cases within 90 days of filing under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 1995. But the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 2000 made it mandatory for investigators to complete investigations within 60 days.

The trial courts can now complete the entire trial process of a case by a year, which was three to four years in the past, Supreme Court advocate Fawzia Karim Firoz said.

Fawzia however said the sessions courts do not set any time-limit for completion of the investigations and the trial usually starts after a long time of the occurrence.

She said a large number of government attorneys are appointed to conduct the cases in criminal courts as the state is the compliant of such cases but no positive or significant developments have been seen in this regard.

Additional Attorney General Abdur Razzaque Khan said 35 out of 72 judges in the High Court handle criminal cases. Only seven of them are in the Appellate Division. Shortage of workforce leads to the backlog of pending cases in the higher court, he added.

The lawyers laid emphasis on increasing manpower of the High Court, appointment of skilled and non-partisan persons as attorneys and public prosecutors and building up a computerised database of the pending cases.

They also stressed the need for coordination between the higher and the lower courts and between the attorneys and the law ministry for accelerating the legal procedure.

However, according to the statistics recorded by the Acid Survivors Foundation since 2003, the number of acid throwing incidents is decreasing. The number of acid victims fell by 15.4 percent in 2003, 21.11 percent in 2004 and 17.54 percent in 2005.

The number of incidents also decreased by 8.46 percent in 2003, 20.59 percent in 2004 and 20.30 percent in 2005, though acid throwing remains as one of the most brutal forms of violence against women and children in the country.

NGO activists working with acid throwing victims say stringent law, quick legal procedure and proper punishment of the culprits would greatly reduce the crime.

Whatever is the reason for the delay in the delivery of justice, it is obvious that this delay causes sufferings to the victims and their families. Lengthy legal procedure also causes economic loss to them, participants in the dialogue said.

Moreover, the victims and their families often face threats from the perpetrators and the delay in trial process encourages the criminals. If the culprits get unpunished, the victims had to bear serious psychological consequences, the participants said.