The Supreme Court has stayed a High Court order regarding the demarcation pillars in Turag River, allowing the pillars in the capital’s Mohammadpur area to stand.
A four-member appeals bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha gave the order
after resolving a leave to appeal petition yesterday.
In June 2009, the High Court issued 12 instructions to prevent the encroachment of Buriganga, Shitalakhhya, Turag and Balu rivers after rights body Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed a petition.
The High Court had instructed authorities concerned to evict all illegal establishment along the banks and install pillars to mark the rivers in accordance with the cadastral survey.
The petitioners later filed another plea as the pillars were not installed in the right places. On July 24, 2013, the High Court ordered authorities to put up pillars within 14 days according to the river’s high season.
The pillars were then put up after evicting real estate developer Amin and Momin Company from a nine-acre piece of land in Mohammadpur, which had been illegally grabbed by the company.
The company then moved the High Court to recover the land and remove the pillars. The court had issued a status quo on the matter on February 22 this year.
The HRPB filed a petition with the Chamber Judge’s Court against the order. The court stayed the order for three weeks and the matter was forwarded to a regular bench for hearing.
The chief justice-led appeals bench heard the matter yesterday and stayed the High Court order.
“The Appellate Division has frozen the High Court’s status quo and resolved the leave to appeal plea,” lawyer Manzill Murshid, who represented HRPB, told reporters yesterday.
He said that following the order, the pillars on Turag River would remain in place.