Public Interest Litigation Petitions

W.P. NO-7585/2003
Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK)
VS
Government & others

(KALLYANPUR BOSTI CASE)


Background:

About 20000 people are dwelling on the land known as Kollyanpur pora bosti consisting of 5 bastis at Mirpur spread over about 53 acres of land. The bosti was established about 20 years ago. On 21.12.2003, the Housing and Building Research Institute with back up from about 300 police led by a Magistrate forcibly evicted the dwellers of section 2-4 from their homes without any prior notice as required by law.

Legal steps taken:

On 23.12.2003 ASK along with two slum dwellers and another organisation (CUP) filed writ petition no 7585/2003 challenging the forcible eviction of Kallyanpur pora bosti without lawful authority and unconstitutional as being violative of fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 27, 31, and 32 of the Constitution and in violation of Section 5 of the Government and Local Authority (Land and Building) Recovery Ordinance 1970.

Courts order:
Court directed the respondents to maintain statue-quo in respect of Basti nos. 1 and 5 pending disposal of the Rule. Bench comprised of Mr. Justice Shah A. N. M. Rahman and Mr. Justice Abdus Salam Mamun.

Grounds taken in the petition:

(a) Violation of fundamental rights to equality under the law and equal protection of the law and right to life under Article 27, 31 and 32 of the Constitution.

(b)

 Violation of the provisions of Section 5 of the government and Local Authority (Land and Building) Recovery Ordinance-1970.

(c)

Contrary to the National Housing Policy - 1993.(d) Obligations under international law like ICCPR and ICESCR to protect right to life and right to shelter.

 

 



 

Contents of the affidavit-in-opposition:

(A)

 Bosti has become the shelter of the miscreants of the City.
(B) Eviction of the bosti was not forcible nor was it without prior notice.
(C) National Housing Policy and International instruments do not bar the process of eviction in accordance with law.

 

 

 


Contents of the affidavit in reply (Draft):

(A) Crime is the common picture of Dhaka City. Crime or criminal behaviour is not exclusive to bosties. Moreover police is responsible to control law and order, So this cannot be a ground to evict the bosti dwellers.
(B) No notice received by any dwellers has been submitted. So the ground of issuing prior notice is not correct.
(C)

Although the House Building Institute owns only about 4 acres of land, the eviction was carried out on 453 acres of land.

 


 

 

Obstacles:

(A) Government is not respectful to comply with the law and to implement Court's order.
(B) Some interested groups among the slum dwellers are collecting money in the name of lawyers fees and costs.
(C) Police are harassing the slum dwellers at midnight and ask them to leave the slum.
(D) Need for better coordination between and among organisations that have invested their projects in the slums, to resist unlawful eviction.


 



Recommendations:

(A) Court to direct Government to identify and allocate unutilised khas land to well known NGOs who will take responsibility to construct low cost housing for the basti dwellers.
(B) Government to sell khas land on soft terms to well known NGOs for use by slum dwellers.
(C) Government to collaborate with organisations working on slum dwellers' housing rights, to develop a comphrehensive Housing plan arrive at long term solution.

 




 

 

Writ Petition No. 6309/2003
Nasrin Akhter Banu and others v Secretary Ministry of Health



" On 21.10.2003, the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh directed the Government (Health Ministry and other related authorities) to show cause why a notice calling for applications for the post of Health Assistant should not be held to be without lawful authority and unconstitutional, being in violation of fundamental rights including to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sex. The notice (issued by the Health Directorate) states that female applicants must be married, and that they should submit a certificate of proof of marriage/marriage registration certificate along with other application papers. Other requirements relate to education, age and residence.

The High Court also passed an interim order staying all proceedings relating to examinations for the post.

After this notice was issued, a leading newspaper carried a front page story about how thousands of women were procuring false marriage certificates in order to apply for the posts (3000 posts). The petitioners were Nasima Akhtar Banu, a woman who was precluded from applying because of the condition regarding marital status, and three legal aid and hr groups, the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) and Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK).

Subsequently, the Government filed an application for stay of the order of stay of the examination proceedings. This is currently listed for hearing in the Appellate Division. While the pleadings by the Government do not indicate any particular grounds for the stay, in oral submissions the Attorney General had mentioned that single women could not be employed in such posts in the prevailing socio-cultural context in Bangladesh.

Amatul Kabir, Advocate filed the case on behalf of the petitioners (bdblast@hotmail.com)

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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BANGLADESH
HIGH COURT DIVISION
(SPECIAL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION)
Changes in policies or laws in the formal sense can be brought about through legislation enacted by Parliament or through judicial directions. ASK uses both methods. Petitions for public interest litigation are prepared on the basis of information provided by the Documentation and Investigation Units, and the analyses provided by research done by both the Research and Advocacy Units. A few public interest petitions filed by ASK in 2002/2003 are given below:
IN THE MATTER OF
An application for permitting to appear as an Intervenor
AND
IN THE MATTER OF
Writ Petition No 248 of 2003


The State
.....................Petitioner

Versus

Inspector General of Prison

.....................Respondent

AND
IN THE MATTER OF

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), represented by its Executive Director, of 26/3 Purana Paltan Line, Police Station Motijheel, District- Dhaka. ........................... Applicant



To,

Mr. Justice Mainur Reza Chowdhury, the Chief Justice of Bangladesh and his companion Justices of the said Hon'ble Court.
The humble petition of the above named applicant most respectfully 

.........................................................................................
SHEWETH

That this suo motu rule has arisen out of a news item published in the Daily Prothom Alo dated 4.1.2003. Based on this news item a Division Bench of this Hon'ble Court consisting of Mr Justice Md. Amir-ul Kabir Chowdhury and Mr Justice Md. Nizamul Huq was pleased to suo motu issue a rule nisi upon the Inspector General of Prison to inquire into the matter and to submit a report to this Hon'ble Court through the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, within thirty days from date, that is 5.2.2003.

That Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), the applicant is a human rights and legal aid organization. It is actively engaged in advocacy against the violation of fundamental rights of citizens. Since its inception in 1986, ASK has provided legal aid and support to the victims of fundamental rights violations, including that of children and prisoners, through its staff and panel of lawyers, who regularly take up fundamental rights matters before the High Court Division. The Applicant organization also undertakes activities aimed at the promotion and protection of human rights at the national and international level. The applicant organization is well known for its investigation, monitoring and documentation of violations of children’s rights. It is also known for its campaigns for law reform and public interest litigations to secure children's rights. For example, in 2002 ASK provided legal aid to 89 children in safe custody from the lower courts and Police Stations. Two children, namely Bahar and Suman, were being tried jointly with the adult prisoners in the Jananirapatta Tribunal No 3, Dhaka in connection with Jananirapatta case no 241/ 2002. ASK came to know about the case and appeared before the Court. ASK prayed for separate charges to be framed for Bahar and Sumon and to send them from Dhaka Central Jail to the National Correction Center, Tongi, Gazipur. The Court was pleased to frame separate charges for Bahar and Suman and to send them to the National Correction Center, Tongi, Gazipur. Moreover the Applicant organization has been providing support to the street children in terms of education, food, clothing, shelter and medical treatment through its six Drop In Centers (DIC) in Dhaka City. In the year 2002, 1,106 children were registered in six DICs of the applicant organization. The assistance to children has been part of ASK's work in favour of disenfranchised and underprivileged groups of citizens, which include children, women, religious and ethnic minorities, and socially marginalized segments of society.

 That ASK has a well known record of providing shelter and support, including legal, educational, health and psychological, to ensure the rights of children. ASK is particularly interested to ease the sufferings of innocent children who are detained in jail. The detention of children in jail along with adults is not only a violation of the existing laws of Bangladesh, and their fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, but is a serious barrier to their development as law abiding and productive citizens of the country.

That the detention of the children in jail also contravenes the basic norms of the human rights of children enshrined in the Child Rights Convention (CRC) 1989, to which Bangladesh is a Party. Article 37(a) of the Child Rights Convention, amongst other provisions, provides, “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;”

That ASK is seeking permission to appear in this case as an Intervenor to assist this Hon'ble Court in the dispensation of justice for the innocent victims and to obtain a judgment which will help to uphold the rights of children who are detained in jail.

That in September 2002, while carrying out investigations on non-criminal lunatics detained in Sylhet Central Jail, ASK investigators found that there were 21 children then detained in Sylhet Central Jail as under-trial prisoners.

That the instant petition is filed to grant the applicant permission to appear in the matter as an Intervenor. It is submitted that if this application is not granted, the very purpose of this application, which is to provide legal and other submissions before this Court, in order to overcome the problem of children languishing in prisons, will be highly prejudiced.

Wherefore it is prayed that your Lordships will be pleased to allow the applicant to appear as an Intervenor in this matter or to pass any other order or orders as your Lordships may deem fit and proper.

 

 

And for this act of kindness, your petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray.