A lawyer has sent a letter to the chairman of the Bangladesh Law Commission urging him to stop the move for a unified law, and to annul the draft in this regard.
Advocate Md. Kamruzzaman, a lawyer of the District & Sessions Judge Court of Dhaka, sent the letter on Monday (April 12). He said that the Law Commission placed logic that they are moving forward for a unified law in a bid to bring uniformity and more discipline in the land management, but the proposed law goes against separation of powers between judicial and administrative organs.
Talking to Bangladesh Post, the lawyer said, “The commission had drafted the law and published the draft on its website seeking opinion from all quarters. I read the draft properly and found that the proposed law violates the fundamental principle of natural justice. It is contradictory to the Constitution, independence of judiciary and separation of power. Many other lawyers and experts are also opposing the Law Commission’s move for unified land law.
Against this backdrop, I sent the letter to the commission so that they would cancel the draft considering the reality.”
He said that the Constitution declares separation of the judiciary from the executive organs of the State. But several sections of the draft law will curtail the power of the civil court as the draft law proposes that there shall be a Tribunal in each district which will settle land-related disputes. Local administration will run the Tribunal. If the ‘Bangladesh Land Act, 2021’, proposed by the Law Commission is enacted, a total of 22 acts as well as laws on land will be repealed.
The laws include the Vested Property Repeal (return) Act of 2001, amended in 2011, the Survey Act of 1875, the Court of Wards Act of 1879 and all amendments, the Non-Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1949 and all amendments, the NAT Act of 1949, the SAT Act of 1950, the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 and all amendments, the Waqf Ordinance of 1962, the Release of Abandoned Building u/s 7 (1) and 8 of the Abandoned Building (supplementary provisions) Ordinance of 1985, and the Bangladesh Transfer of Immovable Property (Temporary Provisions) Order l42/1972.