The judicial system of Bangladesh comprises the Supreme Court, the subordinate courts and the tribunal courts. The judicial system is structured based upon the British judicial system.

The Supreme Court of Bangladesh

The Supreme Court Bangladesh in is classified in to two divisions, the High Court and the Appellate Court. The Appellate Court decides over appeals against the decisions taken by the High Court. The Appellate Court has supreme powers of drafting new amendments or additions in the law.

The High Court is given independent powers and jurisdiction by the Constitution of Bangladesh. Thus the High Court, though being the subdivision of Supreme Court, works completely in its own style and follows different laws than the Supreme Court. The High Court hears original legal matters as well as appeals against the subordinate court judgments.

The High Court has been assigned authority to control and administer all the lower Courts and tribunals.

The Subordinate Courts and Tribunals

The Subordinate Courts are the basic courts of the judicial system in Bangladesh. These subordinate courts can be classified broadly as 1) Criminal Courts and 2) Civil Courts.

These are further subdivided as:

1) Criminal Courts:

a) Sessions Courts
b) Metropolitan Session Courts
c) Special Criminal Courts
d) Metropolitan Magistrate Courts
e) Magistrate Courts

2) Civil Courts:

a) Assistant Judge Court
b) Senior assistant Judge Court
c) Joint District Judge Court
d) Additional District Judge Court
e) District Judge Court
f) Family Court
g) Money loan Court
h) Bankruptcy Court

Criminal courts deal with serious criminal offenses, some of which may even lead to a death sentence. The Session Courts have three layers of Judges: namely, Sessions Judges, Additional Session Judges, and Joint Session Judges.  The Session Judge and the Additional Session Judge have more powers than the Joint Session Judge. The Session Court Judges also hear civil matters.

The Metropolitan Session Court Judges only deliver judgments over criminal matters. Such courts also have a system for providing justice in lesser time as compared to the regular system, which may take ten or more years for resolving such criminal matters. The Metropolitan Session Courts of Bangladesh are located at Dhaka and Chittagong.

  The different types of tribunal courts in Bangladesh include but are not limited to: income tax, administrative, election, and public safety tribunals.