Cabinet approves amendment

The cabinet yesterday approved a proposal to amend the “Vested Property Return Act-2001” to ensure speedy disposal of cases and petitions on return of vested property.
To make the law effective, an ordinance will be promulgated soon, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting.
Under the proposed amendments one or more tribunals and committees on vested property return would be formed in each district for quick disposal of cases.
The district level tribunals would be headed by judicial officers equivalent to senior assistant district judges, joint district judges and additional district judges while the appeals would be disposed of at the appellate tribunals headed by district judges.
The divisional level committees would be headed by additional divisional commissioners and appeals against the decisions of the divisional committees would be disposed of at the central committee headed by the chairman of Land Appeal Board.
Any affected person should be able to file appeal with the divisional committee within 60 days of the district committee's decision and the divisional committee after hearing both sides will dispose of the case and petition within 300 days.
If 300 days are not enough, the committee can take 60 more days with prior permission from the government for the sake of justice, according to the amended law.
The amended law prohibits handing over the vested property.