The Appellate Division has stayed a High Court order that had suspended the leasing process for a sacrificial animal market at Aftabnagar in the capital ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. On an application by Dhaka North City Corporation, it stayed the High Court's order for four weeks. As a result, there is no bar to holding a cattle market at Aftabnagar.

A three-member Appellate Division bench headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan passed the order on Wednesday (14 June) after hearing the Dhaka North City Corporation's application.

Senior lawyer Md Khurshid Alam Khan argued for the appeal application in court, while lawyer Md Yunus Ali Akand appeared for the writ.

However, Md Yunus Ali Akand, the lawyer for the writ, said the court had stayed the High Court order for four weeks but said a cattle market could be held in blocks K, L and M. The stay would remain for the other blocks, meaning no market can be held there.

Earlier, the Appellate Division's chamber judge court had fixed 12 June for hearing the appeal against the High Court order suspending the leasing process for a cattle market at Aftabnagar ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. The chamber judge court of Justice M Enayetur Rahim of the Appellate Division passed that order on 31 May, as writ petitioner lawyer Md Yunus Ali Akand confirmed to Jago News. It was as a continuation of this that the matter came up for hearing today.

Before that, the High Court had extended its order suspending the leasing process. A bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Mohammad Showkat Ali Chowdhury passed that order on Sunday (28 May) after hearing the writ.

On that day writ petitioner Md Yunus Ali Akand argued the case himself. Assistant Attorney General Md Selim Azad appeared for the state, with Deputy Attorney General Sheikh Saifuzzaman (Zaman) and Assistant Attorneys General Md Samiul Alam Sarkar, Julfia Akter and Ashik Rubayet.

The writ petitioner said the court had suspended the leasing process on 22 May, and that stay expired that day, when the matter came up for hearing and the order was extended by another two months.

The High Court had suspended the leasing process for a cattle market at Aftabnagar ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. It also issued a rule asking why the leasing of vacant land in blocks B to H of Badda Eastern Housing, Aftabnagar, by Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) should not be declared illegal, and asked the parties concerned to reply within seven days. The same High Court bench passed that order on 22 May after a preliminary hearing of the writ.

Supreme Court lawyer Md Yunus Ali Akand filed the writ on 15 May seeking a direction that no cattle market be held at Aftabnagar, in order to protect the environment. He filed it in the public interest with the relevant branch of the High Court.

The respondents were the local government ministry, Dhaka North City Corporation, the DNCC's chief land officer, the chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), Eastern Housing and the Dhaka deputy commissioner.

On 2 May the DNCC's estate department announced the tender through a lease notice signed by the corporation's chief estate officer Mohammad Sahe Alam on behalf of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (Local Government Division). The tender mentioned a cattle market for five days including Eid day. In the first phase, tender documents were to be sold on 15 May, and on 16 May from 12:30pm to 2:30pm.

After the sale of tender documents in the second, third and fourth phases in the same way, the tender boxes and envelopes would be opened by 19 June and the schedule given to the highest bidder in the presence of representatives.

The vacant land in blocks B to H of Badda Eastern Housing, Aftabnagar, is part of Badda union parishad. The North City Corporation invited leases for markets to sell sacrificial cattle at seven places, including Aftabnagar.

Before the writ, Sheikh Mahmud Ujjal applied to the city corporation mayor on behalf of residents. The application said that people living in Zahirul Islam City (Aftabnagar) suffer badly for about a month before and after Eid-ul-Azha because of the temporary market. Because the temporary cattle and goat market is held on the main road, residents face great difficulty moving about. If someone falls ill, an ambulance cannot get in to take them to hospital, and if someone dies, it becomes difficult to carry the body.

It said the market also seriously damages the living environment of the residential area, and waste from the cattle and goats badly pollutes it.

The main road of Zahirul Islam City (Aftabnagar) is also badly damaged, the application said, leaving potholes all year round and causing great difficulty for all residents.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.