Land, for the sake of urban and rural development, has been subject to clashes and conflicts for decades in Bangladesh. Land is transferable, inheritable, and most importantly it is a lucrative cash generating asset for the elite. For this reason, capitalist individuals and high profile personalities always pay a keen eye towards expanding their real estate through various questionable means.
These attempts of transferring land assets sometimes pave the way for numerous land related crimes and fatalities, which the mainstream media reports on frequently. Unfortunately our current legal system still needs robust laws and stringent enforcement to be able to control land related crimes in Bangladesh.
If we look at the makeup of land crimes in Bangladesh, it consists of systematic land grabbing, forgery and fraud, illegal transfer and sale, encroachment on khas land, disputes of land ownership, land related violence, and criminal intimidation. Land grabbing is considered to be the most ubiquitous of these land related crimes.
Land grabbing
Land grabbing refers to the illegal occupation or encroachment upon land belonging to others. According to the projections of the Ministry of Land, approximately 1.3 million hectares of khas land have been occupied by influential people in Bangladesh. This estimation suggests that land grabbers frequently overtake government identified riverbanks, roads, waterways, forests, and other regions.
Sometimes land grabbers indiscriminately occupy environmentally critical areas (ECA). Moreover, due to lack of proper documentation it is complex to determine the quantity of illegally seized lands. Furthermore, due to lax administration and improper enforcement of laws, the government cannot easily bring the illegal land grabbers to book.
Noteworthy causes for the proliferation of land grabbing in the rural, urban, and other remote areas can be attributed to the inadequate settlement of land disputes and other corresponding legal loopholes which further exacerbate the illegal overtaking of land. Lax monitoring attempts by the Ministry of Land and the widespread corruption within the land administration at the local level, and the culture of impunity without any liability from the elites are responsible for the expansion of illegal land grabbing.
The reduction of cultivable and non-cultivable land in Bangladesh can be attributed to the unstoppable greed to seize lands. Lastly, socio-economic values towards land immensely contribute to the rapid increase of land grabbing culture in our country.
When it comes to land grabbing in Bangladesh there are several methods that the dubious class applies. They sometimes use direct physical force, or sometimes use irregular means to circumvent the law and take direct control of the land without using any force at all. The actors of the non-violent approach often belong to the state land purchasers, private bodies, and organizations.
On the other hand, violent land grabbers can be commercial corporations who're involved in agriculture business such as agro fisheries, shrimp farms, etc. These perpetrators often resort to physical violence, reaping fear among rural dwellers, assaulting minorities to dispossess them from their ancestral lands.
Mainstream media recently reported that indigenous residents at Chittagong, Bandarban were forcibly evicted by rubber factory henchmen from their homelands in order to construct a rubber processing factory. In order to evict the indigenous dwellers in that region, the perpetrator contaminated the nearby water source. This egregious act of savagery tells us the nefarious intention of the land grabbers.
The third category of land grabbers exploit existing loopholes in the civil legal system to siphon land from the legitimate owners. For instance, realtors and developers, influential people, often acquire land without the owner's consent or execute agreements to obtain the lease by dint of right to possession through false registrations. The aggrieved owners of lands in this situation are left with the option to seek redress via the civil courts where the disposal rate for land related disputes are unimaginably low.
The plaintiffs then are left to seek refuge to the HCD and filing written petitions against the land grabbers, but the cost of filing litigation through this forum often outweighs the claimant's financial ability. The government's lax acquisition and requisition process also deprives the land owners from their land rights.
s there no justice?
Illegal grabbing of land infringes constitutional and international mandates that ensure land rights under Article 42 and Article 17 of UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Land grabbing is an illegal act thus it must be a punishable offense under the conventional criminal justice system.
When seeking redress from land grabbing via the justice system of Bangladesh, in lieu of filing recovery of possession suit under the Specific Relief Act 1877, the criminal justice system of our country allows for filing a case against the alleged land grabber. In this respect the plaintiff can seek redress under the section 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
But here the order to establish peace over a land dispute is provided by the executive magistrate instead of a judicial magistrate. After a written complaint from the plaintiff within two months of the commission of eviction and threatening to evict, the first class executive magistrate shall summon the defendant. The magistrate will hear both parties and determine the real owner of the property which is the subject of land dispute.
In case of severe nuisance the plaintiff here can seek local law enforcement's intervention to investigate the matter and meanwhile the executive magistrate can determine the legitimate occupier based on further inquiry.
But sadly the application of section 145 for remedying the land ownership dispute is rather timid since most people are unaware of this CrPC mandated redress to land dispute. Most people here file a recovery suit under SR Act to the subordinate judiciary which is cumbersome, and the disposal rate of such suits are meager, and procedural hurdles make the disposal of the suit extremely time consuming.
Another disappointing scenario related to this is the lack of penal liability for land grabbers. Our Penal Code 1860 has no specific provisions that pertain to the land grabbers. And this loophole in the criminal justice system can be inferred as the primary get-out-of-jail free card opportunity for the crooked elite land grabbers.
Fortunately the incumbent government is rigorously taking steps for addressing the land related crimes in Bangladesh and attempting to streamline the land administration process in Bangladesh. Already the Ministry of Land has made laudable efforts to digitalize the land records.
Reformed land disputes over RoR correction under the Land Survey and Land Survey Appellate tribunal under the Section 145 of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act 1950 (SAT). The parliament has already passed a bill to amend section 145 of the SAT Act which has given the land appellate authority to the District Judge.
The light of the end of the tunnel is the enactment of the “Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Bill 2023.” This bill upon promulgation would accumulate and incriminate all crimes pertaining to land, happening in Bangladesh. The Ministry of Land has finalized the draft and it will be furnished soon before the parliament by the minister within short notice. The act is now at the regulatory impact assessment stage where the stakeholders of the act give their valuable opinions for further streamlining of the act.
When it comes to land crimes this act would criminalize illegal occupation of khas land by means of force. The preamble of the act justifies that the act would ameliorate the land grabbing by the elites through muscle power, would ensure speedy disposal of forced eviction situations, and safeguard the ownership and possession of the legitimate owner of the land.
The draft act also incriminates the ownership fraud involving land measurement, registration and documentary frauds, land transfer fraud etc. It proposes a plethora of punishment mechanisms. Namely imprisonment ranging from 6 months to 5 years for committing document forgery and forceful land occupation along with pecuniary fine ranging from Tk50,000 to Tk2 lakh and above. This act is a commendable initiative taken by the Ministry of Land to resolve land related crimes in Bangladesh.
Finally the concerned ministry has also proposed to enact “Land Use and Ownership Act 2023,” “Certificate of Land Ownership (CLO) Act” which suggests the commitment to solidifying land ownership of the citizens. The government is constantly developing the land IT infrastructure with the vision of Smart Bangladesh. These proposed enactments and land reform initiatives are definitely conducive to strengthening the land management, land administration, and land adjudication process in Bangladesh.
Unfortunately land is the centrepiece of vilifying conflicts in Bangladesh, the victims of which are the landless and impoverished local people. In order to secure the rights to land, prompt enactment of the above laws and stringent enforcement of such legislations through executive and judiciary measures is indispensable. Since the government is striving towards Bangladesh's LDC graduation, it is all the more pertinent that the land rights are secured and land related violence is put to ground for good.
Samiur Rahman , Lecturer of Law at University of Development Alternative (UODA), Department of Law and Human Rights.
