Your Advocate
This week Your Advocate is Barrister Tanjib-ul Alam Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chamber of a renowned law firm, namely, 'Tanjib-ul Alam and Associates ',which has expertise mainly in commercial law, corporate law, admiralty, employment and labor law, land law, banking law, constitutional law, telecom law, energy law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property Rights and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies.
Query
The people of Shaheenbag-Nakhalpara want to know that the Govt. have decided to construct a 26 kilometer long Elevated Expressway with ramps at different places to facilitate entry and exit to and from the same along the existing Railway track from Airport to Shanir Akhra, near Jatrabari. For this project notices have been served in the name of RS porcha holders. Now the interesting thing is that RS holders in most of the cases are no longer the owner of the lands now divided in innumerable smaller plots. No notices have been served to the present occupants who are the actual owner of the plots on which they are living with their family making tinshed houses to multistried as per respective capabilities. The residents of these plots are going to be homeless seeking your kind advice and legal instructions as to how they can proceed to get the due compensation in the case they were not served with any notices.
Alhajj Abdul Mannan Howlader
444/1,Shahinbag, Tejgaon, Dhaka-1215.
Response
The laws relating to acquisition of property is provided in the Acquisition and Requisition of Properties Ordinance, 1982 and the Rules made thereunder. Since the Government's record of ownership to the property is directly co-related to the latest survey carried out by the Ministry of Land, the only safe method for the Government to comply with the notice requirement under the law is to send the notice of acquisition to the owners whose name is appearing in their record. That is the reason why the Government has sent the notice of acquisition to the RS Porcha Holders. Although a new legislation has been passed for the purpose of acquisition of property under the development scheme of Dhaka Elevated Expressway, the general principle of acquisition of property is equally applicable in case of the acquisition of your property.
Though the Government has issued the notice to the RS Record holders, it does not necessarily mean that the current owners will be deprived of the compensation for the acquisition of their land. However, in order to secure receipt of compensation each of the land owner will have to submit their demands with supporting evidence. Once the DC office is satisfied that although a particular person is named in the RS Record, due to change of ownership the new person becomes entitled to the compensation, the award will be given in the name of the new person i.e. the current owner of the property.
The Deputy Commissioner rejects an application for compensation as the owner of the property, you will have to take legal recourse against the order of the Deputy Commissioner.
