Vested Property Act (Bangladesh)

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The Vested Property Act is a controversial law in Bangladesh. The law allows the Government to seize ownership of properties from individuals it deems as enemy of the state. It was formerly known as the Enemy Property Act and is still referred to as such in common parlance. The act is criticised as a tool for appropriating the lands of the minority population.

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Legal history

This law is the culmination of several successive discriminatory laws against non-Muslims passed while Bangladesh was part of Pakistan.

Chronologically, they are:

  • The East Bengal (Emergency) Requisition of Property Act (XIII of 1948)
  • The East Bengal Evacuees (Administration of Property) Act (VIII of 1949)
  • The East Bengal Evacuees (Restoration of Possession) Act (XXII of 1951)
  • The East Bengal Evacuees (Administration of Immovable Property) Act (XXIV of 1951)
  • The East Bengal Prevention of Transfer of Property and Removal of Documents and Records Act of 1952
  • The Pakistan (Administration of Evacuees Property) Act (XII of 1957)
  • The East Pakistan Disturbed Persons (Rehabilitation) Ordinance (No 1 of 1964)
  • The Defence of Pakistan Ordinance (No. XXIII of 6th September, 1965)
  • The Defence of Pakistan Rules of 1965
  • The Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order of 1965
  • The East Pakistan Enemy Property (Lands and Buildings Administration and Disposal Order of 1966.
  • The Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) Ordinance No. 1 of 1969
  • Bangladesh (Vesting of Property and Assets) President's (Order No. 29 of 1972).
  • The Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provisions) (Repeal) Act (XLV of 1974)
  • The Vested and Non-Resident Property (Administration) Act (XLVI of 1974)
  • The vested and Non-Resident (Administration) (Repeal) Ordinance 1976 The Ordinance, (No. XCII of 1976).
  • The Ordinance No. XCIII of 1976.

[edit] Renamed as Vested Property Act

Though renamed as the Vested Property Act in 1974, the law still retains the fundamental ability to deprive a Bangladeshi citizen of his/her property simply by declaration of that person as an enemy of the state. Leaving the country through abandonment is cited as the most common reason for this, and it is frequently the case that Hindu families who have one or several members leaving the country (for economic as well as political reasons) have their entire property confiscated due to labeling as enemy.

[edit] Measurable impact

[edit] Newspaper reports

The Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Sangbad (21st March 1977) alleged that at that point in time, according to the government's own figures, 702,335 acres of cultivable land and 22,835 homes were listed as enemy property.

[edit] Prominent cases

Much of the property of murdered Hindu politician Dhirendranath Datta was confiscated by the Bangladesh government after independence in 1971. Because Datta's body was never found after he was arrested by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War, an affidavit was brought forward that it could not be concluded that Datta had not voluntarily left the country.

The family property of Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen had been confiscated by the Pakistan government. In 1999, the Bangladesh government announced that it was investigating opportunities to return the property to Sen's family.

[edit] Professor Barkat's seminal work

A seminal work was published in 1997 by Professor Abul Barkat of Dhaka University, 'Inquiry into Causes and Consequences of Deprivation of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh through the Vested Property Act'. This demonstrated that 925,050 Hindu households (40% of Hindu families in Bangladesh) have been affected by the Enemy Property Act. This included 748,850 families dispossessed of agricultural land. The total amount of land lost by Hindu households as a result of this discriminatory act was estimated at 1.64 million acres, which is equivalent to 53 per cent of the total land owned by the Hindu community and 5.3 per cent of the total land area of Bangladesh.

The survey also showed that the beneficiaries of the land grab through the act cut across all party lines. The political affiliation of direct beneficiaries of appropriated property was:

The greatest appropriation of Hindu property took place immediately after independence during the first Awami League government (1972-75) and during the first period of rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (1976-1980). Dr Barkat's work also showed that since 1948, 75% of the land of religious minorities in East Pakistan and subsequent Bangladesh had been confiscated through provisions of the act.

Dr Barkat also emphasized that less than 0.4% of the population of Bangladesh has benefited from the Enemy Property Act, demonstrating that this law has been abused by those in power through corruption, with no demonstrated sanction by the population at large.

[edit] Effect on Bangladeshi demographics

The law in its implementation has been seen as a major driver behind the reduction of the Bangladeshi Hindu population [citation needed], which has declined from an estimated 30% in 1947 [1], to 17% in 1965 to less than 10% today, representing a loss of around 11 million people. Most of this population has left for India, with the more affluent Bangladeshi Hindus leaving due to the act have moved to USA, Canada, Europe and Australia.

[edit] Moves towards repealing the act

Successive governemnts of Bangladesh have promised to repeal the act, but to date, some 35 years after independence, none has done so. The first government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had vowed to repeal any laws that contradicted the values of the newly liberated country; even though the Enemy Property Act was in clear violation of the non-communal constitution that had been established, the law was not repealed and confiscation of property continued unabated.

The government of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League moved toward repealing the act through a majority vote of the national parliament in 2001 and introduction of the Vested Properties Return Act (2001) (in a session boycoted by the opposition BNP and Jamaat members) but the law was never ratified or implemented either in the remainder of the parliament, or by the new government of Khaleda Zia that took office in October 2001.

[edit] International concern

Congressman Crowley of the Bangladesh-American caucus has called for the repeal of the act, as have several Bangladeshi politicians and human rights activists. The current opposition Awami League has vowed to repeal the act if returned to power in the next elections, even though it has yet to acknowledge its own participation in implementation of the act during the 1972-75 period.

An international conference organized by several Hindu activist groups held in London on 16th June 2005 was addressed by, among others, Lord Avebury of the British House of Lords and called for repeal of the act.

The law has been highlighted by the US State Department and Amnesty International as a major human rights concern that has contributed to internal displacement, emigration and disenfranchisement.

[edit] See also

  • Article, from Banglapedia
  • [2]Amnesty International report on Bangladeshi Hindus
  • [3]Oneworld article on Enemy Property Act
  • [4]The Bangladesh Observer article on protest against continued use of Enemy Property Act
  • [5]Full text of Vested Property Act on Drishtipat website (Bangladeshi human rights group)
  • [6]Article on internal displacement of Bangladeshi Hindus on IDMC website
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