A writ petition has been filed challenging the legality of a lease notice for a sacrificial animal market in Aftabnagar in the capital for Eid-ul-Azha. Supreme Court lawyer Md Yunus Ali Akand filed the writ with the relevant branch of the High Court on Monday (22 April).

On 4 April, the chief estate officer of Dhaka South City Corporation had issued a lease notice for sacrificial animal markets for Eid-ul-Azha, listing 11 markets. On 8 April Yunus Ali Akand sent a legal notice to the city corporation seeking cancellation of the Aftabnagar market part. Receiving no response, he filed the writ on Monday.

The secretary of the Local Government Ministry, Dhaka South City Corporation and its chief land officer are among nine respondents to the writ.

The lawyer said that under section 3(2) and the first schedule of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009, Aftabnagar (Eastern Housing) falls under ward 37 of Badda police station, which is part of Dhaka North City Corporation. The area's councillor also belongs to Dhaka North City Corporation. In 2023, when Dhaka North City Corporation issued a lease notice for a cattle market there, the High Court stayed the lease after a writ. When the northern city corporation appealed, the Appellate Division allowed leasing from beyond L block for 2023.

As a result, last year the cattle market was held beyond L block, but because of the High Court writ no market was held from A block to H block.

Aftabnagar (Eastern Housing), he said, is a RAJUK-approved planned residential area like Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Baridhara and Bashundhara, where thousands of people of various professions, including judges, have built homes and live. About 7,000 plots have been allotted in the large residential area. If a cattle market is held there, it will spread across the whole of Aftabnagar and there will be no end to the suffering of ordinary people.

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