Power to maintain, lease vested properties remains with DCs

The High Court on Thursday ruled that Sections 9, 13 and 14 of the Vested Property Return Act, 2001, which came into effect a decade ago, are not contradictory to the fundamental rights mentioned in the Constitution.
A larger bench of the HC comprising Justice Naima Haider, Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice S M Kuddus Zaman delivered the verdict after rejecting two petitions challenging the legality of Sections 9, 13, and 14 of the Vested Property Return Act, 2001.
Following the verdict, the government can prepare list of the vest properties, only the vested property related tribunals will dispose of the cases involving such properties and Deputy Commissioners will have the authority to maintain and give lease those properties.
When the Vested Property Return Act 2001 came into effect in 2012, the government on April 8 that year issued a gazette after scheduling the vested properties.
Shymal Kumar Singha Roy from Khulna and Md Moshiur Rahman Beg from Chattogram filed two separate writ petitions with the High Court claiming ownership of some scheduled vested properties. In the writ petitions, they also challenged the Sections 9, 13 and 14 of the Vested Property Return Act 2001. According to the writ petitions, "The right to property is a fundamental right of the individual under Article 42 of the Constitution. So no officer or any authority of the state or government can deny it.