The number of cases pending with land survey tribunals continues to climb mainly due to an inordinate delay in disposing of such disputes, much to the chagrin of litigants.
According to the quarterly data of Bangladesh Supreme Court, as many as 280,419 cases remained pending with the tribunals across the country as of December 2017.
According to experts, the number is growing day by day for lack of adequate courts, appeal tribunal and active participation of both plaintiffs and defendants.
The experts think a section of corrupt court officials also have a hand in it.
The victims face the double whammy of financial woes and protracted trial proceedings at the hands of these people, they think.
As the appeal tribunal is yet to be formed, justice-seekers have to turn to the highest court for a remedy, which too is time-consuming.
Even if an appeal tribunal is formed, the experts said it will take 10 to 15 years to settle a case.
It was mandatory to form an appeal tribunal, according to a gazette notification made by the government in 2012.
But no such court has yet been formed even after the lapse of nearly six years since the gazette notification.
AMK Hasan, a Mohakhali resident in Dhaka who is in his 50s, filed a case in 2009 to reclaim his land. A court gave a verdict in 2016 after seven years. The case is now pending with the apex court.
He had to file a writ with the High Court in the absence of an appeal tribunal.
Hasan has already spent nine years and a lot of money fighting the court battle. He now faces a shortage of fund to run the case.
Octogenarian Lehaj Uddin of northern Netrakona district filed a case with a local court in 2013.
He filed a writ with the HC in April 2018 against the land survey tribunal's judgment issued in 2017.
Same is the condition of Lehaj in the absence of an appeal court. He too took resort to the HC.
Former law minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed blamed some land officials for the untold sufferings caused to the real landowners.
"The officials, who are involved with land surveys, have a distinct lack of knowledge or they indulge in corruption," he told the FE.
"The matter should be addressed by the director of land records. In many cases, the surveys are done wrongly," he said.
The number of tribunals is a few. The number of cases is rising against that of the cases being settled," he added.
Anti-Corruption Commission's senior prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan said litigants are filing hundreds of writs every year for lack of an appeal court.
An appeal tribunal should be formed without any delay to settle the cases pending with the HC, he added.
Supreme Court lawyer advocate MG Mahmud told the FE that aggrieved litigants have to file writs with the HC as an appeal tribunal is yet to see the light of day.
"If an appeal tribunal is formed, a case will take 10 to 15 years to be settled. That will amount to overtaxing the litigants," he said.
Law ministry sources told the FE that currently there is no visible development in setting up an appeal tribunal.
The sources also did not give any specific time for forming the appeal tribunal.
Officials made a lot of errors in the Bangladesh Survey Revision. But the owners did not get any remedy from the land officials.
So they lodged cases with the civil court seeking remedy.
Of the total cases, 276,428 are now under trial. About 3,986 cases have been disposed, according to the Supreme Court data.
The gazette notification says the government can form as many land survey tribunals as required to settle the suits.
The government can fix and alter the territorial limits of the jurisdiction of any Land Survey Tribunal, it also says.
