HC orders recovery of Infectious Disease Hospital's encroached land within 30 days

The High Court has ordered the recovery of encroached land belonging to the Infectious Disease Hospital in Mohakhali, Dhaka, and its handover to the hospital authorities within 30 days. The court also directed that a progress report on the implementation of the order be submitted.

The order was passed on Monday (August 3) by a High Court bench comprising Justice Khizir Ahmed Chowdhury and Justice Md Ziaul Haque following a preliminary hearing on a writ petition filed in the public interest. A rule was also issued in this regard.

The petitioner's lawyer, Advocate Md Shafiqul Islam Mizan, said the court directed the Ministry of Health to recover the encroached land and hand it over to the hospital authorities within 30 days, and to inform the court of the progress made.

Following a report published in a national daily on April 3 highlighting the encroachment of nearly 30 acres of the hospital's land, an investigation was initiated. Hospital authorities later said that while 32 acres of land had been allocated in their name, approximately 8 acres were occupied by hospital buildings, residential quarters, a mosque and a water pump. While some government structures existed on part of the remaining land, no allocation documents could be found.

A significant portion of the vacant land remains in the possession of outsiders, with illegal structures including semi-pucca and pucca houses, shops, a kitchen market, ice factories and garages for rickshaws and auto-rickshaws constructed on it, hospital authorities said.

Following the media report, a writ petition was filed in the public interest by the Poppers Legal Aid Foundation. After the hearing, the court ordered the recovery and handover of the encroached land to the hospital authorities within 30 days.