Published By The Daily Star on December 10, 2011 (Link Here)
This week Your Advocate is Barrister Omar Khan Joy, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chambers of a renowned law firm, namely, ‘Legal Counsel’, which has expertise mainly in commercial law, corporate law, family law, employment and labor law, land law, banking law, constitutional law, criminal law, IPR and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies. Our civil and criminal law experts from reputed law chambers will provide the legal summary advice.
Query
I have a roadside property within Chittagong City Corporation area, Chittagong. Out of which 12 decimal of land were said to be acquired for CCC some years back for drain & road alignment. I was not compensated for acquisition.
Further to that, later when i placed a slab over the drain to approach my newly constructed commercial building I had to take CCCMayor’s permission against a fee of Tk.250000/ ( Two lac fifty thousand) only.
Being curious, it is only very recently I found out through investigation at the relevant LADC office that my aforesaid land was never officially acquired and they(LADC office) have no record of acquisition of my land.
As such my query is (1) can i take physical possession of my land as per my deed of purchase and khatian? (2) can i rightfully reclaim the amount of tk.250000/ taken from me unjustly for placing slab over the drain on my land?
Mohammed Ali
43, East Madarbari
Chittagong
Response
I would like to thank you very much for your queries. From the fact it appears that your problem is concerning the acquisition of immovable property. In relation to your first query, you should check in the survey whether the disputed property is recorded under your mane in the recent survey. If your name is in the survey, you may apply to the District Commissioner for the possession of your property. On the contrary, it may be necessary to file a case for rectification of the survey if the same is already recorded in the name of CCC along with an application to the DC.
However, as drain and alignment have already been built on your property, it may not be practically viable to recover physical possession thereof. In that case, you may be awarded compensation by the concerned authority. This will mean that they will now formally acquire the portion of your property as per law and by way of paying necessary compensation.
Concerning your second query, you may apply simultaneously to the City Corporation explaining the facts in detail for the refunding of the aforementioned fee you had to pay for procuring the Mayor’s consent.
In both the cases, if the authorities do not reply to your applications or the responses are negative, it may be possible to approach the Hon’ble High Court Division by invoking the Writ jurisdiction.
I hope that the aforesaid opinion will help you to take appropriate step towards a solution of your problem.
For detailed query contact: omar@legalcounselbd.com.
