Ashiyan City housing project legal: SC

The Supreme Court has declared the Ashiyan City housing project in the capital's Dakshinkhan area as legal, concluding an 11-year-long legal battle.

The full bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan announced the judgement on Wednesday.

Following the verdict, lawyers said there is no bar to continuing the project now.

The judgement also opened the fate of some of the families, including non-resident Bangladeshis, who bought plots there but could not start building their homes due to the legal bar.

In 2012, the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) along with several other NGOs filed a writ petition with the High Court, seeking a ban on all activities of Ashiyan City.

The petitioners argued that Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) had no lawful authorities to approve the Ashiyan City project covering 43.11 acres of land.

In 2016, the High Court, after a two-stage hearing, declared the operation of the Ashiyan City Housing project valid, scrapping its earlier judgement that had declared the project illegal in 2014.

The government and BELA filed two separate appeals against the High Court's judgement in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

The final hearing of these two appeals was completed on 7 November.

Earlier on 2 November, at the time of hearing on this appeal, the Appellate Division wanted to know the government's approval process for private housing projects in Khilkhet, Dakshinkhan, Purbachal, Bashundhara and surrounding areas.

During the hearing on 7 November, Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan, who led the Appellate Division bench, praised the work of BELA, but also questioned the petition.

"BELA is a respected organisation and many learned senior lawyers and respectable persons of the society are involved with the society. But BELA filed the instant Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the Ashiyan project only, though other land development projects have other loopholes. This sends the wrong message to the members of the society."

In response, BELA's lawyer Probir Neyogi said, "We filed this case according to the capacity of our organisation. I can't file a case against everyone as I don't have financial and other support."

The chief justice then said, "This has become a pick-and-choose matter. You filed a case against Ashiyan city only and the others got away."

According to the court order on 7 November, Additional Attorney General Sheikh Gholam Morshed submitted the documents relating to the approval process for private housing projects in the mentioned areas.

Seven out of 16 housing projects in Dakshinkhan and surrounding areas did not have final approval from Rajuk, according to a document submitted to the Appellate Division.

The process for approval of three housing projects is underway.

The document said land has been acquired for Rajuk Uttara Model Town Project but it did not clarify whether the project has been approved or not.

At the time of hearing on the writ petition in 2016, the High Court asked BELA why it singled out the Ashiyan project and not the others.

In a dissenting order, an HC judge dismissed the PIL, saying it was not "maintainable on point of maintainability".

Incidentally, the deputy commissioner approved the Ashiyan project on 16 January 2014, the same day the HC pronounced the verdict.