HC orders recovery of encroached land at Mohakhali Infectious Diseases Hospital within 30 days

The High Court today (3 August) directed the Ministry of Health to recover encroached land belonging to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Capital's Mohakhali and hand it over to the hospital authorities within 30 days.

The bench of Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury and Justice Md Ziaul Haque issued the directive after holding a preliminary hearing on a public interest writ petition.

The court also issued a rule, directing the ministry to recover the occupied land, hand it over to the hospital within 30 days and submit a compliance report.

Advocate Md Shafiqul Islam Mizan represented the petitioner.

According to the writ, the petition was filed following a The Daily Ittefaq report published on 3 April titled "Hospital loses 30 acres of land!".

In response to a query from Pauper's Legal Aid Foundation, the hospital authorities said it had been allocated 32 acres of land, of which about eight acres are occupied by the hospital building, staff quarters, a mosque and a water pumping station.

The remaining land has been used for various government establishments, including the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC), NIMU & TC, TEMO Workshop, the Family Planning Warehouse, the IPH School, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the National Cancer Hospital, and residential quarters for officials and employees of the Leprosy Hospital.

The hospital authorities said they had no records showing the land had been formally allocated to any of the occupying organisations, although they are required to pay land tax for the entire 32 acres each year.

The writ also alleged that much of the remaining land has been illegally occupied by outsiders, who built houses, shops, a kitchen market, an ice factory, and rickshaw and auto-rickshaw garages.

Pauper's Legal Aid Foundation later filed the petition, attaching the published news report.