Vested Property
Ordinance to extend timeframe of appeals to 300 days
The Cabinet on Monday approved a draft of the Vested Property Restoration (Second Amendment) Bill 2012 for extending the timeframe for appeals for return of vested properties to 300 days from 180 days after publication of gazettes on vested properties.
The land ministry placed the draft, seeking approval of the Cabinet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
‘The latest amendment has been proposed as many people were not aware of the gazette notifications and could not appeal for return of the vested properties in the stipulated time,’ Cabinet secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting.
He said that the amendment would be made effective through an Ordinance since Parliament was not in session.
There is already one tribunal in each district under the district judge to dispose of the applications for restoring vested properties.
The tribunal is supposed to dispose of the applications within 300 days and the applicants must file their appeals within maximum 180 days of the publication of the gazette on the vested properties in their respective areas as per the latest law amended in May 2012.
The secretary, however, said the local authorities in some places did not get the gazettes in time.
Moreover, it required some documents for filing the applications for return of the properties.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to form more tribunals with the additional district judges to deal with applications for restoration of vested properties in the wake of a large number of such appeals being filed with the district judges throughout the country.
Many people and even the district judges in some areas were not aware of the gazette notification issued in March on formation of the tribunals which were supposed to receive the applications for restoration of the vested properties, according to officials.
Courtesy of New Age
