The High Court has directed authorities to recover the illegally occupied land of the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Mohakhali, Dhaka, and hand it over to the hospital authorities within 30 days. The court also ordered that a progress report on the implementation of the directive be submitted.
The order was passed on Monday after the preliminary hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL). A High Court bench comprising Justice Khizir Ahmed Chowdhury and Justice Md Ziaul Haque issued the order along with a rule.
Advocate Md Shafiqul Islam Mizan appeared for the petitioner. He said the court directed the Ministry of Health to reclaim the occupied land of the hospital within 30 days and submit a report on the progress of the process.
According to the case details, a report titled “Hospital loses 30 acres of land!” was published in the daily Ittefaq on April 3. Following the report, the People’s Legal Aid Foundation sent a letter to the hospital authorities seeking information on the matter.
In response, the hospital authorities said that a total of 32 acres of land had been allocated in the name of the hospital. Of this, around 8 acres are occupied by the seven-storey main hospital building, residential quarters for officials and employees, a mosque, and a water pump facility.
The authorities further said that structures belonging to various government institutions had been built on the remaining land, but no necessary documents regarding the allocation of those plots could be found.
They also stated that a large portion of the vacant land had been occupied by outsiders. Illegal structures, including makeshift and permanent houses, shops, a makeshift market, an ice factory, and garages for rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, have been built there.
Later, citing the media report, the People’s Legal Aid Foundation filed a public interest writ petition with the High Court. After hearing the petition, the court ordered the recovery of the encroached land and its handover to the hospital authorities within 30 days.
