Supreme Court (SC) yesterday upheld a High Court verdict directing authorities concerned to protect and maintain 55.5 acres of land on its (SC) premises in the city in accordance with the law.
Two SC lawyers Asaduzzaman Siddiqui and Aklas Uddin Bhuiyan, on January 31, jointly filed a writ petition as public interest litigation stating that different organisations are grabbing SC land.
Among the organisations, Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is illegally occupying around seven acres of land and Shishu Academy around 2.5 acres, they claimed.
The HC on March 10 this year directed authorities concerned to protect and maintain SC lands.
The HC also declared that the lands, recorded in the name of Bharat Samrat in 1910 under Central Survey (CS) Khatian No 16855 and CS Dag No 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 16/162, are now SC property.
The academy and RHD filed two seperate leave-to-appeal petitions earlier for staying the operation of the HC verdict.
A seven-member bench of the SC Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain dismissed the petitions and passed the order.
Manzill Murshid, counsel for the petitioner, told reporters on Thursday that authorities concerned of government and SC are to conduct survey to demarcate, restore and record the lands in the name of SC as per the apex court order.
Source : The Daily Star
