PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL)

1. Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)
2. Mrs. Zohora Khanum

1.    Md. Humuyun Khadem, Chairman, RAJUK
2.    RAJUK
3.    Secretary, Ministry of housing and Public Works
4.    Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest
5.    Executive Director, Indus Valley Investment Ltd

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripaksha (RAJUK) granted a 75-year lease of 220 acres of land in the Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara Residential area, including areas of Gulshan and Banani Lakes earmarked as open space, to a private company, Indus Valley Investment (Pvt.) Ltd. under the name of the “Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara Lake Development Scheme.” There were allegedly grave procedural irregularities involved in the process, and the directions given by the Ministry of Establishment and Works were virtually ignored. The grant would allow the respondent company to build a club house, floating restaurant with landscape parking, shopping arcade and malls, a five-star hotel and sky scrapers, thereby affecting the local inhabitants’ right to access to the open space, the lakes, and also depriving them of their right to peaceful possession of the property, together with its appurtenant amenities and surroundings as provided in the master plan adopted under the Town Improvement Act. After the service of Notice Demanding Justice by the petitioners, the agreement was allegedly canceled, but the petitioners were not provided with an office copy of the order or reply to the notice.

The High Court issued a Rule Nisi directing the respondents to show cause as to why the grant of lease in favour of Indus Valley Investment Pvt. Ltd. by RAJUK should not be declared to be made without any lawful authority and of no legal effect.

Mr. Justice A. M. Mahmudur Rahman

Mr. Justice Abu Sayeed Ahmed