The High Court ordered the government to establish required number of land survey appellate tribunals across the country within 90 days by issuing notifications in the official gazette to hear the appeals arising out of the judgments, decrees or orders of the land survey tribunals in Bangladesh.
Secretary of the land ministry has been asked to comply with the order and to submit a report in the High Court to this effect.
The High Court bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal delivered the verdict after hearing a suo moto rule issued in this regard.
The High Court bench delivered the short verdict on July 25, 2019 but the full text of the verdict was published on the website of the Supreme Court recently.
The court issued the rule on March 03, 2015 as there was no existence of any land survey appellate tribunal in the country though the concerned law suggested establishing such tribunals.
In the rule the court wanted to know from the secretaries of the ministries of land and law to explain in two weeks as to why they should not be directed to establish as many land survey appellate tribunals as may be required to hear the appeals arising out of the judgments, decrees or orders of the land survey tribunals.
After holding hearing on the rule, the court declared the rule absolute.
In the observations of the verdict the court said, "Thousands of litigant people have been suffering from
boundless misery in last 15 years since 2004 due to the inability of the Ministry of Land to establish land survey appellate tribunals in the country."
"Inability to issue a 'one page' notification in more than 15 years is a major failure for the minister and secretary of the land ministry," also read the observation.
The court said the officials for whom common people have suffered for long 15 years must be held accountable.
Referring to the Article 7(1) of the Constitution the court said, "All powers in the republic belong to the people. But the land ministry has been harassing that owner of the country for 15 years since 2004."
The State Acquisition and Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 2004 provides for establishment of land survey tribunals and land survey appellate tribunals in Bangladesh.
In the meantime, land survey tribunals have been established across the country. But unfortunately no land survey appellate tribunal has yet been constituted by the government by any notification in the official gazette.
Because of non-existence of land survey appellate tribunals, writ petitions are being filed in the High Court Division under Article 102 of the Constitution challenging the legality of the judgments passed by the land survey tribunals across the country compounding the problem of backlog of cases of the High Court Division.
During holding hearing on such an appeal petition in 2015, the High Court could know that there is no land survey appellate tribunal in the country. Then the court issued the suo moto rule.
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