A contempt of court ruling has been issued against the additional divisional commissioner (revenue) of Chittagong for reinstating a lease agreement on forest land in violation of a court order.
The reinstatement was for the construction of a ship-breaking yard on forest land that had been previously cancelled by the local deputy commissioner.
Following a preliminary hearing, a High Court bench comprising Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razik-al-Jalil issued the ruling on Sunday against Chittagong Additional Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) Yasmin Parvin Tibriji, ordering her to appear before the court on July 9.
The contempt of court case was filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA).
In 1977, the government declared 195,000 acres of forest land in Chittagong district as reserved forest under Section 4 of the Forest Act, 1927. Out of this, 627 acres in Sitakunda upazila were transferred by the Land Ministry to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in 1974 for coastal forestry purposes. The 627 acres were later declared protected forest under Section 4 of the Forest Act.
There have been several court orders to prevent the leasing of the forest and seabed land for ship-breaking activities to protect coastal forest land.
On October 6, 2013, the Appellate Division ordered the removal of existing ship-breaking yards from the forest land and mandated afforestation, with costs to be recovered from shipyard owners.
Additionally, the court directed the deputy commissioner of Chittagong to refrain from granting leases of forest land for other purposes.
Despite these clear instructions, on December 26, 2018, the deputy commissioner of Chittagong leased 7.10 acres of forest land to BBC Steel Ltd for the construction of a ship-breaking yard. However, on January 2, 2020, the High Court ruled that the lease agreement executed by the deputy commissioner was invalid as it was beyond their legal authority.
Ignoring the High Court's judgment, the district administration again leased the same land on February 14, 2022, to Kohinoor Akhtar, the wife of the proprietor of BBC Steel Ltd, for ship-breaking purposes.
Bangladesh losing forest resources faster than global averageThis led to another contempt of court case being filed. The case was "not pressed" on May 29, 2023, after the district administration cancelled the lease agreement.
When Kohinoor Steel Ltd, another company of BBC Steel’s owner, appealed the cancellation, the additional divisional commissioner reinstated the one-year lease on March 24, 2024, without consulting the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, or the Forest Department. BELA subsequently filed the contempt of court case that led to Sunday's ruling.
