Private Wealth Disputes in Bangladesh: Estates, Heba, Waqf, Trusts and Family Companies in 2026

Private wealth disputes Bangladesh families face: the 2026 position

Private wealth disputes Bangladesh families bring to court rarely start as lawsuits. They start with a death, a gift deed nobody else knew about, a will produced years later, a family company run by one branch of the family, or a relative abroad who signed a power of attorney and stopped watching. By the time lawyers are involved, the property has often been mutated, mortgaged or sold, and the documents that decide the case have already been signed.

This guide is written for the contentious side of private client work: Bangladeshi families, business owners and non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) heirs who need to challenge, or defend, a transfer of family wealth in 2026. It covers estate disputes under Muslim, Hindu and Christian personal law, attacks on heba and wills, probate and letters of administration contests, waqf and trust disputes, shareholder fights inside family companies, partition among co-heirs, cross-border enforcement and the mediation route that now sits in front of many of these cases. Where TRW has already published a detailed guide to a procedure, we link to it rather than repeat it.

Summary: Private wealth disputes in Bangladesh are decided first by the personal law of the deceased or donor, then by documents: registered deeds, wills, grants of probate, trust instruments and share registers. Since 1 July 2005 a heba of land must be made by registered declaration, so most modern gift disputes turn on fraud, undue influence and capacity rather than on whether a gift was made orally. Waqf, trust and company disputes each have their own statutory forum, and many partition and family disputes must now pass through mandatory legal aid mediation before they reach court.

Key point: The single most important decision in a private wealth dispute is the forum. Revocation of probate belongs to the District Judge, waqf management disputes start with the Administrator of Waqfs, oppression claims in a company go to the High Court Division and only registered members holding the statutory threshold may bring them, and many property-distribution disputes must first go to legal aid mediation. Filing in the wrong place costs years.

At a glance

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Table of Contents

What private wealth disputes Bangladesh courts hear

A private wealth dispute is any contest over the ownership, control or transfer of family assets: land and flats, bank deposits and savings instruments, shares in a family company, rental income, gold and jewellery, waqf estates and property held on trust. In Bangladesh these disputes are rarely about valuation alone. They are about who is an heir, what a document actually did, and whether a person with power over the assets used it honestly.

Three features make private wealth disputes Bangladesh families face different from ordinary commercial litigation. First, the governing rules change with the religion of the deceased or donor. Second, land registration rules, not just personal law, decide whether a transfer is valid. Third, most disputes are between relatives who will remain connected long after the case ends, which is why negotiated outcomes and family settlements matter as much as judgments.

Who the parties usually are

The typical claimants are daughters and widows excluded from a distribution, children of a first marriage, siblings outside the family business, NRB heirs who discover that property has been transferred in their absence, and beneficiaries of a waqf or trust who receive no accounts. The typical defendants are the relative in possession, the donee under a heba deed, the executor or administrator of an estate, the mutawalli or trustee, or the controlling shareholders of a family company.

Why disputes escalate

Escalation usually follows a sudden registered transfer before death, a mutation that excludes some heirs, a sale or mortgage by one co-owner, or a change in a company's board or share register. The earlier that record is challenged, the better, because courts are slow to disturb transactions on which purchasers and banks have relied.

Inheritance and estate disputes under personal law

Every estate dispute begins with one question: which personal law governed the deceased? The answer fixes who inherits, in what shares, and whether the deceased could have changed the outcome by will. TRW's guides to inheritance law in Bangladesh and the Muslim inheritance framework set out the shares in detail. This section focuses on where disputes arise.

Muslim estates and fara'id

Muslim estates devolve under fara'id on fixed fractional shares, after funeral costs, debts and any valid bequest. In Muslim private wealth disputes Bangladesh courts rarely doubt the law; the facts are what is contested. Contests typically concern whether a person is an heir at all, whether the estate includes property already transferred by heba during the deceased's lifetime, and whether daughters, widows or the children of a predeceased son have been left out of the distribution in practice. A deed of distribution signed under family pressure, or a mutation that records only the sons, is a common starting point for litigation.

Disputed heirship is a question of fact. Where rival claims exist, an administrative heirship certificate will not resolve them, and the issue must be decided by a civil court on evidence. The succession certificate guide explains how heirship documents are obtained and when they can be challenged.

Hindu estates and the Dayabhaga school

Most Hindus in Bangladesh are governed by the Dayabhaga school, which Bangladesh has not codified in the way India did with its Hindu Succession Act 1956. Disputes often concern the limited estate of a widow, the position of daughters, and the devolution of stridhan, a woman's own property. In Shishubar Dhali v Chitta Ranjan Mondol (Civil Appeal No 55 of 2003), the Appellate Division held in December 2022 that a daughter inherits her mother's stridhan absolutely, like a son, and not as a limited interest, drawing support from the equality guarantees in Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution.[14] That reasoning gives female heirs a stronger platform in stridhan disputes than older case law suggested.

Christian and other estates under the Succession Act 1925

Christian estates, and some others, fall under the Succession Act 1925, which allows broad testamentary freedom and provides a statutory scheme of intestate shares. Disputes here look more like English estate litigation: the validity of a will, the conduct of an executor, and claims that the estate has been under-declared or mismanaged. The Succession Act also supplies the procedural machinery for probate and letters of administration used by other communities, which is why its contested-grant rules matter far beyond the Christian community.

Challenging a heba or gift deed

Heba disputes are now the largest single category of private wealth disputes Bangladesh courts see in the family context. A parent transfers land to one child, often late in life, and the other heirs discover the deed only after death. The donee says it was a free gift made out of love and affection; the others say it was procured by fraud, pressure or deception. TRW's guide to heba, will and gift registration covers how a valid heba is made. Here we focus on how one is attacked and defended.

The three essentials of a heba

Under Muslim law a heba requires a declaration of gift by the donor, acceptance by the donee and, most importantly, delivery of possession. The High Court Division restated these elements in February 2026 and noted that before 2005 there was no requirement to execute and register a deed for a heba under Muslim personal law.[4] A gift without genuine delivery of possession is vulnerable, and a donee who cannot say when, where and before whom the gift was declared and possession handed over is in difficulty at trial.

Registration since 1 July 2005

The Registration (Amendment) Act 2004 came into force on 1 July 2005 and made registration mandatory for the declaration of heba, as well as for deeds distributing inherited property and contracts for sale of land. The registration fee for a heba deed was set at a nominal level to respect Muslim personal law.[3] The practical result is a dividing line. Alleged oral gifts of land after that date face a serious statutory obstacle, while oral gifts said to pre-date it must still be proved through the three essentials and, above all, through evidence of possession.

Where an oral gift and a later registered heba conflict, the registered instrument will ordinarily prevail. In a November 2025 judgment the High Court Division applied that principle and held that the donor could not resile from her registered deed by arguing that she had not owned the land at the time of an earlier oral transaction, applying feeding the grant by estoppel under section 43 of the Transfer of Property Act 1882.[5]

Fraud, undue influence and the pardanashin rule

Most modern challenges allege that the donor did not understand the document, was misled about its nature, or was dominated by the donee. Where the donor is an illiterate or secluded woman, the courts have long placed the burden of proving that the deed was genuine and understood on the person relying on it. That protection is not automatic. In the same November 2025 judgment the court rejected a pardanashin argument for an 80-year-old donor because she had attended the sub-registry office to register the deed and later came to court to give evidence herself.[5] Evidence of the donor's independence, advice and conduct around the registration date is therefore decisive on both sides.

Powers of attorney and absent owners

NRB families face a particular risk: a power of attorney granted for management is used to make a gift. In Mesbahun Nahar v Mosammat Saima Parvin Rekha (First Appeal No 15 of 2013, judgment 8 February 2026), a widow living in the United Kingdom intended to appoint relatives as attorneys to manage family land but a registered heba deed was produced in their favour instead. The High Court Division found the deed fraudulent, noted that the daughters' power of attorney authorised sale, mortgage and lease but not gift, and decreed the suit.[4]

The lesson is twofold: draft powers of attorney narrowly, and treat any unexpected registered transfer as an emergency. TRW's guide to powers of attorney in Bangladesh explains the formalities.

Defending a heba

Donees should preserve evidence of the donor's reasons, independent witnesses, the donor's own handling of the registration, and possession afterwards: mutation, land development tax, rent and occupation. A heba backed by consistent conduct is far harder to set aside than one that sits unused in a file.

Contesting wills, probate and letters of administration

Will disputes in Bangladesh divide along personal-law lines. For Muslims, the core limit is substantive: under Hanafi law a testator may bequeath only one third of the estate, and any bequest beyond that third, or any bequest to an heir, requires the unanimous consent of the other heirs given after the testator's death. A Muslim will needs no particular form and may be made in writing, orally or even by gesture.[6] Those rules make Muslim will disputes largely about proof of the will and the validity of any heirs' consent.

For Hindus, Christians and others, testamentary freedom is wider and the battle moves to the grant. A will propounded through probate, or an estate administered under letters of administration, can be opposed by caveat and contested. TRW's guide to the letter of administration process covers the petition, bonds and hearing. The points below concern strategy once a contest is under way.

Contentious proceedings belong to the District Judge

District Delegates can deal only with non-contentious grants. Once an objection is raised, the matter must go to the District Judge. In January 2024 the High Court Division held that a Joint District Judge sitting as District Delegate had no jurisdiction to hear a revocation application against a probate he had granted in non-contentious proceedings, and transferred the case to the District Judge of Dhaka.[7] Filing in the right court at the outset avoids that kind of detour.

Revocation for just cause

Section 263 of the Succession Act 1925 allows a grant of probate or letters of administration to be revoked for just cause. Just cause includes proceedings that were defective in substance, a grant obtained by fraud through a false suggestion or the concealment of something material, a grant based on an untrue allegation of an essential fact, a grant that has become useless and inoperative, and a grantee's wilful failure to exhibit a true inventory or account.[7] In practice the most common ground in family cases is that the real heirs were never given notice of the probate application.

Attacking the will itself

A will contest usually rests on lack of capacity, lack of knowledge and approval, undue influence, forgery or improper execution. The evidence that wins is contemporaneous: medical records, who instructed the drafting lawyer, the witnesses' independence, and whether the dispositions make sense. A will that suddenly disinherits a close relative, prepared by the main beneficiary, invites close scrutiny.

Waqf disputes and the Administrator of Waqfs

A waqf dedicates property permanently for religious, charitable or family purposes, and family waqfs remain a recurring source of private wealth disputes Bangladesh landed families bring. Waqf is deliberately outside the Trusts Act 1882, which states that nothing in it affects the rules of Muslim law as to waqf.[9] Waqf disputes are instead governed by the Waqf Ordinance 1962 and supervised by the Administrator of Waqfs.

Removal of a mutawalli and official mutawallis

The most common waqf disputes concern the mutawalli, the manager of the waqf, who is accused of mismanagement or misappropriation, or who refuses to account to the family beneficiaries. The Administrator can act on complaints and, under section 44 of the Ordinance, appoint an official mutawalli where it is considered necessary, even beyond the terms of the waqf deed. In a December 2025 judgment the High Court Division upheld the removal of a mutawalli found guilty of mismanagement, malfeasance and misappropriation and the appointment of the Upazila Nirbahi Officer as official mutawalli.[8]

Appeal, not writ

The same judgment is a warning on procedure. A mutawalli removed by order of the Administrator may appeal to the District Judge within three months of communication of the order, but must first hand over charge to the new appointee before the appeal is heard. Because that statutory appeal exists, the High Court Division discharged the writ petition.[8] Families challenging, or defending, a mutawalli should calendar the three-month window immediately and plan for the handover requirement.

What beneficiaries can do

Family beneficiaries can complain to the Administrator and seek an inquiry into accounts. The strongest complaints are documentary: the waqf deed, enrolment records, rent rolls and evidence of unauthorised leases or sales.

Trust disputes under the Trusts Act 1882

Private trusts feature less often than waqf or heba in private wealth disputes Bangladesh families litigate, but they are used by business families and for property held for minors or relatives abroad. TRW's guide to trust registration in Bangladesh covers set-up. When a trust goes wrong, the Trusts Act 1882 supplies a clear set of remedies.

Validity first

No trust of immovable property is valid unless declared by a non-testamentary instrument in writing, signed by the author of the trust or the trustee and registered, or by will.[9] An informal family understanding that one brother holds land for all the siblings will therefore often fail as a trust of land, and the claim must be reframed, for example as co-ownership, benami or fiduciary gain.

Accounts, information and breach

A trustee must keep clear and accurate accounts and, at the beneficiary's request, give full and accurate information about the trust property. A beneficiary may inspect and copy the trust instrument, title documents, accounts and vouchers.[9] A trustee who commits a breach of trust must make good the loss, and any fiduciary, including a trustee, executor, partner, agent or company director, who uses that position to gain a pecuniary advantage must hold the gain for the person he was bound to protect.[9] That last rule is a powerful tool in family business disputes as well as trust cases.

Replacing a trustee, including an absent one

A trustee may be replaced where he dies, disclaims, becomes unfit, or is absent from Bangladesh for a continuous period of six months or leaves to reside abroad. Where a replacement cannot be made under the trust instrument, a beneficiary may petition a principal civil court of original jurisdiction without filing a suit, and where execution of the trust becomes impracticable, the beneficiary may sue for the court to execute it.[9] For families with members abroad, the residence rule cuts both ways: it can remove an inactive NRB trustee, or an NRB trustee who has moved can find his position challenged.

Family business and shareholder disputes

Many Bangladeshi fortunes sit inside private limited companies controlled by one generation, which makes company law central to private wealth disputes Bangladesh business families face. On death or a falling-out, the fight is over the share register and the board. TRW's guide to shareholder disputes in Bangladesh covers the remedies in detail. Three points matter specifically for family wealth.

Standing depends on the register

Section 233 of the Companies Act 1994 is the main route for minority members alleging oppression or mismanagement, but it is only open to applicants who meet the qualifying shareholding in section 195(a) in their own names as registered members. In July 2026 the High Court Division dismissed a section 233 application by members of a business family who claimed an indirect 10 per cent interest through a holding company, holding that shares registered to a separate corporate entity cannot be treated as the holding of its own shareholders.[10] In family groups that hold operating companies through other companies, the claimant must start by mapping exactly who is on which register.

Directors remain fiduciaries

The court in that case went out of its way to stress that dismissal on standing was not approval of the company's conduct, that directors' powers are fiduciary and must be exercised in good faith for proper purposes, and that a controlling majority cannot disregard other shareholders' statutory rights.[10] Family members who lack standing under section 233 may still have claims under general law and under the fiduciary-gain rule in the Trusts Act.[9]

Shares in a deceased member's estate

A deceased member's shares pass under personal law, but the company acts only on proper succession documents. Heirs who delay can find resolutions, allotments and transfers made in their absence, so notify the company of the death and the claim at once.

Partition among co-heirs

When heirs cannot agree how to divide land, a partition suit follows. The substantive and procedural rules are explained in TRW's guides to partition suits and joint property partition. For private wealth disputes Bangladesh families now face, two developments stand out.

First, property-distribution disputes within the jurisdiction of Assistant Judge courts are among the categories that must go to legal aid mediation before filing in covered districts.[1] The effect has been dramatic: government figures show partition suit filings falling from 2,001 to 661 between February and May 2026, compared with the same months of 2025.[2] Second, a private partition among heirs must be recorded properly. Deeds distributing inherited property have required registration since 1 July 2005.[3] An unregistered family division may keep the peace for a generation and then fail when one branch sells.

Cross-border assets and NRB heirs

Bangladesh has one of the world's largest diasporas, and a large share of private wealth disputes Bangladesh lawyers handle now have a foreign element: heirs in London, New York, Toronto or the Gulf; foreign bank accounts or property held by a Bangladeshi deceased; or a foreign court order that one side wants to enforce in Dhaka.

Enforcing foreign judgments: sections 13 and 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure

A judgment of a court in a reciprocating territory, notified as such by gazette, can be enforced directly by an execution petition under section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908; commentary gives India as an example. A judgment from any other country must be sued upon in Bangladesh, where it carries evidential weight. Either way it must pass the conclusiveness test in section 13: it fails if given by a court without competent jurisdiction, not given on the merits, based on an incorrect view of international law, contrary to natural justice, obtained by fraud, or sustaining a claim that breaches Bangladeshi law.[11]

Time limits differ: an application to execute a reciprocating-territory decree must be filed within 12 years of the decree becoming enforceable, while a suit on a non-reciprocating judgment has a 3-year limitation period.[11] For estates, the further practical limit is that a foreign court's view of who inherits Bangladeshi land will not override the personal law and registration rules that Bangladeshi courts apply to immovable property here. TRW's guide to execution cases in Bangladesh covers the execution stage.

Practical risks for heirs abroad

• Silent transfers: absence makes it easier for relatives in possession to mutate land, register a heba or sell. Periodic searches of land records and sub-registry indexes are cheap insurance.
• Over-broad powers of attorney: as the 2026 Mesbahun Nahar judgment shows, a management power can be misused to manufacture a gift.[4]
• Evidence: overseas heirs must plan for attested documents, witnesses who can travel or give evidence on commission, and continuity of instructions over a long case.
• Foreign assets of a Bangladeshi estate: foreign banks and registries apply their own succession rules and may require separate grants abroad, so the Bangladeshi and foreign proceedings should be coordinated from the start.

Mediation and family settlements

Most private wealth disputes Bangladesh families bring end in settlement, and the law now pushes them there earlier. Since September 2025, mandatory pre-case mediation through district legal aid offices has applied to listed disputes, including family disputes under the Family Courts Act 2023, parental maintenance claims and property-distribution disputes in Assistant Judge courts. A mediation agreement signed by the parties and certified by the chief legal aid officer is final, binding and enforceable with the status of a court order.[1]

The regime, now on a statutory footing through the Legal Aid Services (Amendment) Act 2026, continues to expand district by district, and the Law Minister reported in July 2026 that around 4.5 million cases were pending nationwide.[2] TRW's guide to mediation in Bangladesh explains the process.

Drafting a family settlement that holds

A family settlement in a wealth dispute is only as good as its implementation. It should identify every asset by full schedule, record each party's share and the personal-law basis for it, provide for registration of any transfer or distribution deed, deal with mutation, tax and pending litigation, and set dates and default consequences. Where minors or absent heirs are affected, their position must be protected by proper representation or the settlement will be vulnerable later.

What mediation cannot do

Mediation does not cure a void document, bind a person who was not party to it, or stop a limitation period that has already run. Where property is at risk of sale or encumbrance, protective court relief, such as a temporary injunction, may be needed in parallel or before any settlement talks.

2026 development: gifts with a reserved lifetime right of use

The most significant 2026 change for private client disputes is the Transfer of Property (Amendment) Bill 2026, Bill No 105 of 2026, published in the Bangladesh Gazette on 27 August 2026. It would insert sections 122A and 122B into the Transfer of Property Act 1882, allowing a gift of movable or immovable property in which the donor reserves the right of lifetime enjoyment. The gift is limited to parents or grandparents and their children or grandchildren, in either direction, and to spouses, and for land must be made by declaration in a deed registered under section 17(1)(a) of the Registration Act 1908.[12]

If the donee dies first, the property passes to the donee's heirs subject to the donor's continuing right of enjoyment. The Bill states that the new route is a distinct mode of transfer that does not affect the validity of an ordinary gift or heba.[12] A registered gift generally cannot be revoked unilaterally; the parties may jointly vary or cancel it by registered deed for genuine needs, and the District Judge may be approached where one party cannot consent because of minority, disappearance or mental incapacity.[13]

Parliament passed the Bill by voice vote in September 2026 amid objections from Islamic parties that it could be used to bypass the rules on hiba, wasiyat and fara'id; the Law Minister, Md Asaduzzaman, described the route as optional.[13] For disputes, two consequences follow. Parents who use the new route will have a clearer answer to the familiar complaint that they were tricked into giving away their home. Heirs will scrutinise whether the route was used to defeat their shares. Confirm commencement before relying on the new sections; TRW's analysis of the usufruct gift law tracks its status.

Forums that decide private wealth disputes

Choosing the right forum is half the strategy in private wealth disputes Bangladesh law spreads across several bodies. The main ones are summarised below.

Parallel proceedings, from mutation objections to company filings, should be coordinated so that findings in one forum do not undermine the case in another.

How TRW runs a private wealth dispute

The sequence below reflects how we prepare and run private wealth disputes Bangladesh families and NRB heirs bring to us.

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Throughout, settlement communications should be marked without prejudice, and no negotiation should be allowed to run past a limitation date or a statutory appeal window.

Comparing the main types of dispute

The table summarises the governing law, forum and key risk for each category of private wealth disputes Bangladesh courts hear. On a phone, scroll it sideways.

Choosing a private wealth dispute law firm in Bangladesh

A private wealth dispute law firm in Bangladesh needs a combination of skills that rarely sit in one practice: personal-law expertise across Muslim, Hindu and Christian communities, land and registration litigation, company law, probate practice, and cross-border coordination with foreign counsel. Families should ask four questions before instructing anyone.

• Can the team compute and prove the shares? Every estate case depends on an accurate, documented family tree.
• Does the team know the forum? Each court and authority runs differently.
• Can it manage clients abroad? NRB heirs need reliable reporting and a plan for overseas evidence.
• Will it tell you when to settle? A registered settlement often beats a decree after a decade.

TRW's inheritance and succession planning practice, cross-border family matters practice and corporate shareholder disputes practice work together on these matters.

Mistakes to avoid in private wealth disputes Bangladesh families bring

• Waiting for a family meeting: delay lets transfers, mutations and mortgages accumulate, and third-party purchasers acquire defences.
• Assuming an oral gift will be accepted: since 1 July 2005 a heba of land requires a registered declaration.[3]
• Relying on the pardanashin label alone: courts look at what the donor actually did around the registration.[5]
• Filing a revocation in the wrong court: contested grants and revocations belong to the District Judge.[7]
• Going straight to writ: where the Waqf Ordinance gives an appeal, the High Court Division will expect it to be used.[8]
• Suing as an indirect shareholder: section 233 standing depends on the register, not on economic interest.[10]
• Leaving family divisions unregistered: an unregistered distribution of inherited land is fragile.[3]

What to watch in 2026 and beyond

Three developments will shape private wealth disputes Bangladesh courts decide over the coming year. First, the commencement and early use of the usufruct gift provisions, and the first disputes over whether they were used fairly. Second, the continued spread of mandatory legal aid mediation, which is already changing how partition and family claims begin. Third, a steady stream of High Court Division decisions applying old principles of heba, probate and company standing to modern family structures, many involving heirs abroad.

When a family dispute is emerging, the first weeks decide the most: which documents to secure, which transfers to freeze and which forum to use. If you need a clear view of your position, contact TRW to discuss your matter in confidence.

Frequently asked questions

What is a private wealth dispute in Bangladesh?

It is any contest over family assets: inheritance and estate distribution, challenges to heba deeds and wills, probate contests, waqf and trust disputes, family company shareholder disputes and partition among co-heirs.

Can an oral heba of land still be valid?

Since 1 July 2005, registration has been mandatory for the declaration of heba. An oral gift said to pre-date that change must still be proved through declaration, acceptance and delivery of possession.[3] [4]

How can a registered heba deed be cancelled?

By a civil suit for declaration and cancellation, usually alleging fraud, undue influence, lack of understanding or misuse of a power of attorney. In February 2026 the High Court Division set aside a heba deed obtained by attorneys who were meant only to manage the property.[4]

How much can a Muslim leave by will?

Generally one third of the estate. A bequest beyond one third, or to an heir, needs the unanimous consent of the other heirs after the testator's death.[6]

Which court hears a challenge to a probate?

The District Judge. District Delegates deal only with non-contentious grants, and revocation for just cause under section 263 of the Succession Act 1925 must be heard by the District Judge.[7]

Can a mutawalli be removed?

Yes. The Administrator of Waqfs can act on complaints and appoint an official mutawalli under section 44 of the Waqf Ordinance 1962. A removed mutawalli may appeal to the District Judge within three months but must first hand over charge.[8]

Can a beneficiary demand accounts from a trustee?

Yes. Under the Trusts Act 1882 a trustee must keep accurate accounts and give full information on request, and a beneficiary may inspect the trust instrument, title documents and accounts.[9]

Who can bring an oppression claim in a family company?

Only registered members meeting the qualifying shareholding in section 195(a) of the Companies Act 1994. An indirect interest through a holding company does not count.[10]

Can a foreign court judgment be enforced in Bangladesh?

A judgment of a notified reciprocating territory can be executed under section 44A of the Code of Civil Procedure; others must be sued upon. Both must satisfy the section 13 conclusiveness test.[11]

Must partition disputes go to mediation first?

In covered districts, property-distribution disputes within Assistant Judge court jurisdiction must first go to legal aid mediation, and a certified settlement is enforceable as a court order.[1]