Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act: The 2025 Amendment, the 2026 Act and What the Renaming Means

Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act: the statute and its 2025 to 2026 amendment

The Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act is the statute that created Bangladesh's rural development academy at Taraganj in Rangpur district. Parliament enacted it in July 2023 as the Sheikh Russel Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur Act, 2023 (Act No. 23 of 2023).[1] In February 2025 an Ordinance deleted the words "Sheikh Russel" from its long title, short title, establishing section and board clause, and added a special provision extending that deletion to instruments made under the Act.[2] In April 2026 the new Parliament re-enacted the same changes in an Act and repealed the Ordinance.[4]

This guide sets out exactly what each instrument says, how statutory renaming and transition provisions work in Bangladesh, and what the change means in practice for the academy's staff, contracts, property, bank accounts, litigation and records. The position is stated as at 21 October 2026.

Summary: The academy at Taraganj, Rangpur, is a statutory body corporate created by Act No. 23 of 2023. Ordinance No. 6 of 2025 removed the words "Sheikh Russel" from that Act and from instruments made under it. Parliament replaced the Ordinance with Act No. 22 of 2026, which repeats the same amendments word for word, repeals the Ordinance and saves everything done under it. The institution is now Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur. Because the body corporate has perpetual succession, its staff, contracts, property, funds and pending proceedings carry on under the new name without any transfer.

Key point: A statutory renaming is not a new institution. The 2026 Act changes words, not legal personality. Contracts, title, employment and claims stay with the same body corporate. What needs managing is paperwork: party descriptions, bank mandates, title records, cause titles and certificates should be brought into line with the current statutory name, while records made before February 2025 stay as they were made.

At a glance

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Table of Contents

Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act: the 2026 position in brief

Three instruments make up the current law. The parent statute is Act No. 23 of 2023, passed by Parliament and assented to by the President on 11 July 2023.[1] The first amending instrument is Ordinance No. 6 of 2025, made by the President on 23 February 2025 while Parliament stood dissolved and published in an extraordinary Gazette on 24 February 2025.[2] The second, and the one now in force, is Act No. 22 of 2026, which received the President's assent on 10 April 2026 and was published the same day.[4]

The 2026 Act does three things. It repeats, section for section, the textual amendments the Ordinance had made. It repeats the special provision on instruments made under the parent Act. And it repeals the Ordinance while deeming everything done under it to have been done under the 2026 Act.[4] The practical result is continuity: there has been no gap since 24 February 2025 in which the earlier name was the statutory name.

Which academy and which statute

The institution is the rural development academy established under section 3 of the 2023 Act, with its head office in Taraganj upazila of Rangpur district and a research mandate covering the whole of Bangladesh.[1] Press reports place the campus at Ikorchali in Taraganj, beside the Dhaka to Dinajpur highway, on about 50 acres.[12] It should not be confused with the older academies at Cumilla (BARD) and Bogura (RDA), or with the sister academy at Jamalpur, which has its own 2023 statute and its own 2026 amending Act.[5]

How to cite the statute now

After the amendment, section 1(1) of the parent Act gives its short title without the deleted words, so the correct current citation is the Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur Act, 2023 (Act No. 23 of 2023), as amended by Act No. 22 of 2026.[4] The amending Act itself keeps the original name in its own short title, the Sheikh Russel Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur (Amendment) Act, 2026, because an amending statute is named by reference to the principal Act as originally enacted. That is a drafting convention, not a sign that the old name survives in the principal Act.

How the Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act created the academy

Understanding the renaming starts with the structure of the parent statute. The draft was approved in principle by the Cabinet in April 2022, when it was reported under the title "Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur Act, 2022" alongside a parallel draft for Jamalpur.[10] Final Cabinet approval in December 2022 was reported with the academy named after Sheikh Russel.[11] The Bill was enacted as Act No. 23 of 2023 with 22 sections.[1]

A body corporate with perpetual succession

Section 3(1) establishes the academy. Section 3(2) makes it a statutory body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, with power, subject to the Act and rules, to acquire, hold and transfer movable and immovable property, and to sue and be sued in its own name.[1] This is the provision that does most of the work when the name changes. Perpetual succession means the legal person continues regardless of changes in its members, officers or, as here, the words used to describe it.

Governance: the board and the Director General

Management and administration vest in a board under section 6. Section 7(1) lists its members: the minister in charge of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives as chair, the Secretary of the Rural Development and Co-operatives Division as vice-chair, senior officials from other ministries and bodies, the heads of the other rural development academies, up to two government-nominated experts and, under clause (n), the academy's Director General as member-secretary.[1] Section 12 provides for a Director General as chief executive, responsible for implementing board decisions and managing the fund.[1]

Staff, funds, audit and subordinate legislation

Section 13 lets the academy employ staff under an organogram approved by the government, with terms of service set by regulations and, where regulations are silent, by the rules applying to government employees. Section 15 creates the academy's fund, to be kept in a scheduled bank. Section 17 subjects its accounts to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Section 20 empowers the government to make rules by Gazette notification, and section 21 lets the board make regulations with the government's prior approval.[1] Each of these features shapes what the 2025 and 2026 amendments needed to say, and what they could leave unsaid.

The 2025 Ordinance: long title, short title and establishment text

Ordinance No. 6 of 2025 has six sections. Its preamble recites that Parliament stood dissolved and that the President was satisfied that circumstances existed requiring immediate action, invoking article 93(1) of the Constitution.[2] Section 1 gave the short title and provided that the Ordinance would come into force at once.

The amending technique is deletion, not substitution. Section 2 deleted the words "Sheikh Russel" from the long title of the 2023 Act. Section 3 deleted the same words from section 1(1), the short-title provision. Section 4 deleted them from section 3(1), the provision that names and establishes the academy.[2] Because the remaining words already formed a complete name, no new words were needed.

Why the definition clause was not touched

One detail is easy to miss. Section 2(1) of the 2023 Act always defined "academy" as the Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur, established under the Act, without the deleted words.[1] Throughout the operative provisions the statute refers simply to "the academy". That is why the amendments could be confined to the titles, section 3(1) and the board clause: the rest of the Act already worked with the shorter name.

Deletion compared with substitution

Renaming statutes in Bangladesh use either method, depending on the result wanted. Where the remaining words form the new name, drafters delete. Where the new name is different, they substitute. The 2026 amendment to the poverty alleviation and rural development academy statute for Gopalganj shows the second method: it replaced the earlier name in that Act's full title and section 1(1) with the words "Palli Unnayan Academy, Gopalganj".[6] For Rangpur, deletion was enough.

The section 7 amendments to the board

Section 5 of the Ordinance amended section 7(1) of the 2023 Act in two places. Clause (a) of section 5 deleted the words "Sheikh Hasina" from clause (t) of section 7(1). Clause (b) deleted "Sheikh Russel" from clause (n).[2] The legacy note described these as deletions from "identified clauses"; the parent Act shows what those clauses are.

Clause (t): the Jamalpur academy's Director General

Clause (t) of section 7(1) makes the Director General of the sister academy at Jamalpur an ex officio member of the Rangpur board.[1] The Jamalpur academy's own statute was amended in parallel, and the 2026 Act for Jamalpur (Act No. 26 of 2026) deletes "Sheikh Hasina" from that statute's full title.[5] The Rangpur amendment keeps the cross-reference accurate: the board seat now belongs to the Director General of Palli Unnayan Academy, Jamalpur. Without it, the Rangpur Act would have named an office by a title that no longer existed.

Clause (n): the member-secretary

Clause (n) makes the academy's own Director General the board's member-secretary.[1] Deleting the words there simply aligns the description of the office with the academy's new name. Neither amendment changes who sits on the board, how many members it has, its quorum or its powers. Section 8(5) of the 2023 Act separately provides that no act of the board is invalid merely because of a vacancy or a defect in its constitution, which reduces the risk that a renaming creates governance arguments.[1]

Section 6: the special provision on instruments

Section 6 of the Ordinance, headed "special provision", carried the renaming beyond the printed Act. With effect from the Ordinance's commencement, the words "Sheikh Russel" were to be deleted from any rule, regulation or other legal instrument made under the 2023 Act, any special or general order, notification or Gazette notification issued, and any executed instrument, unless the context requires otherwise.[2] Section 6 of the 2026 Act repeats this special provision in the same words.[4]

What section 6 covers

Section 6 reaches three groups of documents. The first is subordinate legislation: rules made by the government under section 20 and regulations made by the board under section 21. The second is administrative acts: special or general orders, notifications and Gazette notifications. The third is executed instruments, a category wide enough to include contracts, deeds, leases, bonds and similar documents signed by or with the academy. The scope is set by the statutory text; we do not suggest that any particular set of rules or regulations had been made by February 2025.

How the deletion operates

A clause of this kind works by operation of law. Nobody has to re-execute a contract or reissue a notification for the reference to be read with the words deleted. When a court, a bank or a registry reads an affected instrument, it reads it as though the words were not there. That is the main practical value of section 6: it removes any argument that an old reference now points to a non-existent body or office.

"Unless the context requires otherwise"

The qualification matters. A mechanical deletion would sometimes produce nonsense or rewrite history. A dated board minute recording what happened in 2024, a certificate stating the name under which a course was completed, or a court record describing the parties as they then stood may need to be read as written. The context exception lets the reader keep the historical wording where reading it differently would distort what the document records. In practice, section 6 is best understood as a rule for reading live obligations and powers, not a direction to alter archival records.

Commencement and earlier documents

Section 6 applies from the commencement of the instrument, meaning from 24 February 2025 under the Ordinance and, by the 2026 Act's own terms and its savings clause, continuously after that.[2] [4] It does not make the earlier name unlawful for the period when it was the statutory name. Documents executed between July 2023 and February 2025 under the earlier name were valid when made, and remain valid; section 6 only governs how references in them are read from commencement onward.

From Ordinance to Act: what happened in 2026

An Ordinance is temporary by design. Article 93(1) of the Constitution lets the President make Ordinances with the force of an Act of Parliament when Parliament stands dissolved or is not in session. Article 93(2) requires every such Ordinance to be laid before Parliament at its first meeting and provides that, unless earlier repealed, it ceases to have effect thirty days after it is laid, or earlier if Parliament passes a resolution disapproving it.[7]

The 2026 conversion exercise

The Parliament elected in February 2026 faced 133 Ordinances made during the interim period. A parliamentary special committee reported on 2 April 2026, and by 10 April 2026 Parliament had passed 91 Bills that, taken together, converted 117 Ordinances into Acts within the thirty-day window.[8] [9] The amendments to the Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act were part of that exercise: Acts Nos. 21, 22 and 26 of 2026, for Gopalganj, Rangpur and Jamalpur, were all assented to on 10 April 2026.[4] [5] [6]

The Bill and its statement of objects

The Rangpur Bill was introduced on 7 April 2026 as Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad Bill No. 28 of 2026.[3] Its statement of objects and reasons, signed by the minister in charge, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, records that the Advisory Council approved the draft Ordinance on 6 February 2025, that the Ordinance was then vetted and published, and that the Bill was brought to give effect to it as law in light of the obligation in article 93(2) and to continue the academy's citizen-service work in rural development.[3] The Bill's operative text matches the enacted Act.

Repeal and savings in section 7

Section 7(1) of Act No. 22 of 2026 repeals Ordinance No. 6 of 2025. Section 7(2) provides that, notwithstanding the repeal, anything done or any action taken under the repealed Ordinance is deemed to have been done or taken under the 2026 Act.[4] This is the standard Bangladeshi "repeal and savings" formula. It closes the gap that would otherwise arise between the Ordinance's lapse and the Act's commencement, and it validates steps taken between February 2025 and April 2026 in reliance on the Ordinance.

Repeal or conversion?

The legacy TRW notes described the Ordinance as "repealed", and it was. The more useful description is that its content was converted into an Act. The amendments to the parent Act, including the special provision, did not fall away when the Ordinance was repealed; Parliament enacted them again in identical terms in sections 2 to 6 of the 2026 Act.[4] Anyone reading the repeal notice on the official legislation portal in isolation could wrongly conclude that the old name had been restored. It has not.

What the Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act amendment means for staff

For employees, the short answer is that nothing changes in substance. Staff are employed by the academy as a body corporate under section 13 of the 2023 Act, and they are treated as the academy's employees.[1] The renaming does not create a new employer, so there is no transfer of employment, no break in service and no need for fresh appointment letters. Pay scales, seniority and pension or provident fund entitlements continue on the same basis.

Recruitment under the current name

Recruitment since the change has run under the shorter name. In October 2025 a recruitment advertisement for 57 posts at the Rangpur academy was published under the Rural Development and Co-operatives Division.[13] In June 2026 the academy re-advertised 57 posts across 27 categories from grade 4 to grade 20, with a closing date of 25 July 2026.[14] Reporting in July 2025 described a completed campus with only the Director General and a deputy director in post.[12]

Practical points for employees and the academy

• Appointment letters and service books: letters issued before 24 February 2025 remain valid; the special provision allows them to be read with the words deleted. Reissuing them is unnecessary, but new letters should use the current name.
• Service regulations: any regulations under sections 13 and 21 are read with the deletion, and their substance is unchanged.[1]

Contracts, property, funds and litigation

The academy is a corporate party to contracts, an owner and user of land and buildings, and a holder of public money. Each needs a slightly different approach after the change.

Contracts and procurement

Contracts signed with the academy remain binding on and enforceable by it. A renaming is not an assignment and does not trigger change-of-control or assignment clauses, because the counterparty is the same legal person. Counterparties should note the new name in their records, use it in invoices, bills and notices, and, for long-term contracts, consider a short letter or side letter recording the statutory change. For procurement under public procurement rules, the same principle applies; our note on Bangladesh public procurement amendments in 2026 covers the procurement framework itself.

Land, buildings and registers

Section 3(2) lets the academy hold movable and immovable property in its own name.[1] Title vests in the body corporate, not in the name, so no conveyance is needed. Land records, mutation entries and utility accounts that show the earlier name should be corrected in the ordinary way so that future dealings, valuations and audits are not delayed. The special provision helps here, because executed instruments such as deeds and leases are read with the words deleted unless the context requires otherwise.[4]

The academy's fund and bank accounts

The academy's fund must be kept in a scheduled bank, and the Comptroller and Auditor General audits its accounts.[1] Banks will usually update the account title on production of the Gazette notifications and a board resolution. Where the bank insists on documentation, the 2026 Act is the instrument to produce, since the Ordinance has been repealed.

Litigation and the cause title

Because the academy sues and is sued in its own name, a pending case does not abate on a statutory renaming. The proper step is an application to amend the cause title so the record shows the current name, supported by the Gazette copies. New proceedings, including any writ petition concerning the academy's decisions, should name it as Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur. Our guide to the writ petition in Bangladesh explains when public-law remedies against statutory bodies are available.

Records, certificates and the historical record

Records raise the most delicate questions, because the context exception in the special provision is most likely to apply here.

Diplomas and course certificates

Section 10 of the 2023 Act lets the academy run diploma, postgraduate diploma and certificate courses, affiliated with a university or education board.[1] Certificates issued under the earlier name remain valid. Holders do not need replacements, and verifying bodies should treat the earlier and current names as the same issuing institution. New certificates should carry the current name; where a holder asks, the academy can issue a letter confirming the statutory change.

Minutes, reports and audit trails

Board minutes, annual reports under section 18 and audit reports under section 17 are records of what happened at a date. They should not be retrospectively altered.[1] The sound practice is to keep historical documents exactly as made and to record the statutory change in a file note or a board resolution that cites the Ordinance and the 2026 Act. That preserves the audit trail and satisfies the special provision, which is concerned with how references are read, not with rewriting archives.

How statutory renaming and transition provisions work in Bangladesh

The Rangpur amendment is a compact example of a technique that Bangladeshi drafters use whenever a statutory body is renamed. The same pattern appears across the 2025 amendments to university statutes, which our notes on 13 university name changes in the 2025 Ordinance and on university name changes and legal documents discuss.

The three standard components

• Text amendments: deletion or substitution in the long or full title, the short-title provision, the establishing section and any cross-references in other provisions, such as board membership clauses.
• A special or transitional provision: a rule that references in subordinate legislation, orders, notifications and executed instruments are to be read as references to the new name, usually with a "context" exception.
• Repeal and savings: where an Ordinance is replaced by an Act, a clause repealing the Ordinance and deeming acts under it to have been done under the Act.

What a renaming statute usually does not need

Because the body corporate continues, a renaming statute does not usually need clauses transferring assets, liabilities, staff or proceedings. Those clauses are characteristic of statutes that dissolve one body and create another, or merge bodies, as with the merger of investment agencies into Invest Bangladesh in 2026. The Rangpur instruments contain no transfer clauses, and none were needed.[4] If a future statute ever restructured the academy rather than renaming it, the analysis for staff, contracts and property would be quite different.

Where to look for the authoritative text

The Bangla Gazette text is authoritative. Section 22 of the 2023 Act allows the government to publish an authentic English text by Gazette notification, but the Bangla text prevails in any conflict.[1] English renderings in this article, including "special provision" and "repeal and savings", are our translations. For any document that will be filed with a bank, registry or court, use certified copies of the Gazette for the 2023 Act, the 2025 Ordinance and the 2026 Act.

Instruments and organisations involved

Several public bodies play a part in a statutory renaming of this kind, and knowing who holds which record saves time.

Practical checklist after the Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act amendment

For the academy, its counterparties and anyone relying on its documents, the following sequence reflects how we approach a statutory renaming in Bangladesh.

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The same steps apply, with adjustment, to the sister academies at Jamalpur and Gopalganj, whose 2026 amending Acts were assented to on the same day.[5] [6] Where rival claims to authority within an institution arise at the same time as a name change, our guide to a board dispute in Bangladesh covers who may sign and how banks respond.

Comparing the instruments behind the Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act

The table below sets the parent Act, the 2025 Ordinance and the 2026 Act side by side. On a phone, scroll it sideways.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating the repeal notice as a reversal: the Ordinance was repealed because its content was re-enacted, not because the change was undone.[4]
• Citing the Ordinance as current law: cite Act No. 22 of 2026 for the amendments and the parent Act, as amended, for the academy's powers.
• Novating contracts unnecessarily: a renaming does not change the counterparty; a letter recording the change is enough.
• Rewriting historical records: the context exception protects dated records, and audit trails depend on them.
• Confusing the academies: Rangpur, Jamalpur, Gopalganj, Bogura and Cumilla each have their own statute and their own amendment history.

For advice on how a statutory change affects a contract, property, employment matter or pending case involving a public body, our constitutional and writ litigation practice works with clients on the documents and the forum.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Palli Unnayan Academy Rangpur Act?

It is Act No. 23 of 2023, which established a rural development academy as a body corporate with its head office in Taraganj upazila, Rangpur. It was enacted as the Sheikh Russel Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur Act, 2023, and its short title now omits those words.[1] [4]

What did the 2025 Ordinance change?

Ordinance No. 6 of 2025 deleted "Sheikh Russel" from the long title, section 1(1) and section 3(1), deleted "Sheikh Hasina" from section 7(1)(t) and "Sheikh Russel" from section 7(1)(n), and added a special provision for instruments under the Act.[2]

When did the 2025 Ordinance take effect?

The President made it on 23 February 2025. It was published in an extraordinary Gazette on 24 February 2025 and stated that it came into force at once.[2]

Is the 2025 Ordinance still in force?

No. Section 7(1) of Act No. 22 of 2026 repealed it, and section 7(2) saves everything done under it. The same amendments now stand in sections 2 to 6 of the 2026 Act.[4]

What is the academy called now?

Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur. That matches the definition of "academy" that has appeared in section 2(1) of the parent Act since 2023.[1] [4]

What does the section 6 special provision do?

It deletes "Sheikh Russel" from rules, regulations, other legal instruments, orders, notifications, Gazette notifications and executed instruments under the 2023 Act, unless the context requires otherwise. It operates automatically, without re-execution.[2] [4]

Do staff need new appointment letters?

No. Staff are employees of the same body corporate under section 13 of the 2023 Act. There is no change of employer or break in service, although new documents should use the current name.[1]

Must contracts with the academy be novated?

No. The academy has perpetual succession, so the counterparty is unchanged. A short letter recording the statutory change is usually enough for payment and audit purposes.[1]

Are certificates issued under the old name still valid?

Yes. They were issued by the same institution under the name then in force. The context exception in the special provision supports reading historical records as written.[4]

Why does the 2026 Act still carry the old name in its title?

An amending Act is named by reference to the principal Act as enacted, so it is called the Sheikh Russel Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur (Amendment) Act, 2026. Its operative sections remove the words from the principal Act.[4]