Rajuk is now going to run mobile courts and set up its own magistrate's court on its premises to expeditiously try the violators of building construction laws and rules.

Rajuk Chairman KAM Haroon said the magistracy authority delegated to Rajuk would greatly facilitate swift punishment of offenders under Building Construction Act of 1952.

"Now it will be easy to instantly punish any offender for major deviation of building laws and rules including the offender within Rajuk," he said.

The court will try cases initiated by Rajuk under the building laws as well as complaints filed by aggrieved individuals.

It used to take a very long time to settle the building law violation litigations concerning Rajuk, said the Rajuk chairman.

Offences committed a long time ago will also come under the purview of this court, he added.

Building Construction Act of 1952 (amended act 15 of 2006) provides imprisonment upto seven years or a minimum fine of Tk 50,000 or both for the offenders of the act, provisions of Metropolitan Building Construction Rules-2006 and Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC).

Without having any magistracy power, Rajuk had not been able to take action against the deviators of building construction laws.

The Rajuk magistrate, with a first class status, needed to be empowered as a metropolitan magistrate to hand down imprisonments over five years.

Rajuk Magistrate ASM Emdadud Dastagir said an authorised Rajuk officer or a police officer not below the rank of assistant sub-inspector would be able to initiate a prosecution as per the building law.

Aggrieved individuals will also be able to lodge complaints with the court. After taking the complaint into cognisance, the court will direct an authorised officer to initiate prosecution.

The convicted will have the scope to file an appeal with the district judge court within 30 days of verdict by the Rajuk court. As per the law, no civil court shall entertain appeals against the verdict of the Rajuk court.

"We are taking instructions from higher judicial officers for proper functioning of the court," said Dastagir.

Even after demolishing parts of buildings with deviated designs, the building owners and the occupants have so far invariably rebuilt the illegal portions and reoccupied car parking and public spaces as they could not be punished with any fine or imprisonment, said government officials concerned.

Errant builders and real estate developers in the capital have so far gone unpunished though the building construction act clearly provides penalty for the violators of building laws. Despite rampant violations of the building rules in the capital city, there is hardly any example that authorities have penalised the violators under the law.

It does not matter whether a building was constructed before or after the penal provisions were enacted, the original Building Construction Act provides punishment to those who violated the law at various stages of construction, said a top government engineer preferring not to be named.

The Rajuk has so far identified good many building plans submitted with fake documents and many others passed without complying with building rules but it has not yet punished any one involved, said Rajuk sources.

The Building Construction Act of 1952 provides that whoever commits an offence by contravening the provision of section 3 of the act or by failing to comply with any directions given by an authorised officer or a committee under relevant sections shall be punishable under this section.

Those who commit any offence by designing or approving or implementing a building construction plan in contravention of any provisions of the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) and building rules shall also be punishable.

Errant builders as well as members of the building construction (BC) committee, authorised officers and those involved with clearance certificates scrutiny committee of Rajuk will be punishable under the law for taking part in the approval of any faulty, fake and incomplete building plan.

The Public Works ministry a couple of months back decided to empower the Rajuk magistrate as a metropolitan magistrate to hand down fines and imprisonments to the building owners with deviated plans. Accordingly, Rajuk made a proposal for the power delegation.

Public Works ministry sent the proposal to establishment ministry, which forward it to the home affairs ministry that finally delegated the power.

Setting up of the courtroom is going on in full swing at Rajuk premises. Hopefully, the court will start functioning by next week, said Dastagir.

The Rajuk court will act in association with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court (CMM).