Dhaka Law Reports

Dhaka Law Reports (DLR) a monthly periodical publishing judgments of the superior courts, namely, the High Court Division and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. The purpose of the publication is to circulate such judgments as may be cited or used as judicial precedents for deciding similar cases raising similar points of law or judgments containing interpretation of a law referred to or involved in the adjudication of a particular case; such judgements are also known as judge made laws. The importance attached to such a interpretation is evident from the fact that it is provided in article 112 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh itself that the law declared by the Appellate Division shall be binding on the High Court Division and the law declared by either Division of the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts subordinate to it.

The Dhaka Law Reports, the oldest law journal in Bangladesh, began to be published from 1949, soon after the founding of the Dhaka High Court with jurisdiction over the territory which now constitutes Bangladesh. The DLR is widely cited and used by members of both the Bar and the Bench whenever the question of citing judicial precedent arises. It normally contains 90 pages. In addition to judgments of both the divisions of the Supreme Court, a few pages generally carry statutes that appear in the Gazette Notification of the government of Bangladesh. The DLR also has a journal section covering eight pages containing learned articles contributed mainly by lawyers and judges on legal matters of public interest. It is a private enterprise originally launched by Obaidul Huq Chowdhury who felt the necessity of filling up the vacuum of a law journal when the Dhaka High Court started functioning. He was its editor and publisher till his death in 1987. The publication is now run by some of his successors. [Shahabuddin Ahmad] [Ahmad, Shahabuddin