The Cabinet has approved the draft of the Vested Property Return (Amendment) Act, 2013, extending the date for appeal to Dec 31, failing which the courts will claim ownership of vested property.The approval was given at a regular meeting of the Cabinet on Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that the deadline for filing the appeal with courts to claim ownership of vested property was June 30.
The law was being amended in a bid to extend the deadline up to Dec 31 for those who failed to lodge appeal within the existing stipulated timeline.
The Secretary said that the law would be enacted as an ordinance by the President since currently there is no parliamentary session.
He said that the vested properties in the country were divided into two categories– ‘ka’ and ‘kha’.
The ‘ka’ category properties define those belong to the government and now under lease.
The ‘kha’ category properties mean those are in the lists and not under government possession or were leased out.
On Apr 1, the Cabinet approved the amendment to the ‘Vested Property Return Act 2001’ by incorporating extension of appeal timeframe and formation of new committees to ensure proper justice.
The vested property return tribunal and committees in 61 districts except three hill districts have already been formed and in the mean time various districts have begun their activities.
According to the existing law, district judges preside over the tribunals and the Supreme Court is authorised to decide on the appeal hearings.
In order to increase the number of courts, the amendment proposed additional district judges and sessions judges will head the tribunal for speedy dissolution of the pending cases filed by claimants.
“The move will help increase the number of courts and ensure speedy disposal of the cases,” the Cabinet Secretary added.According to official statistics, there are about 660,000 acres of vested property across the country. – bdnews24.com
