Maritime disputes can raise threshold questions about the court with jurisdiction and the statutory form in which a claim is brought. Bangladesh’s Admiralty Court Act, 2000 supplies the starting framework. Its provisions identify the court, enumerate defined claim heads, distinguish *action in personam* from *action in rem*, and state how an admiralty suit is instituted. The text is in Bangla, and the official record cited below is central to reading those provisions. The Act does not turn the listed claim heads or route labels into results in individual disputes. The statutory conditions, definitions, party status, ownership language, claim characterisation and operative procedural law remain material to applying the framework.
The statutory framework
The court identified by the Act
In section 3(1), the official Bangla text states that the High Court Division is the Admiralty Court. The Act is dated 27 November 2000 and is identified on the official Laws of Bangladesh record as Act No. 43 of 2000. 1
The statutory designation identifies the court named by the Act. Whether a particular dispute belongs in that court, whether another court may be relevant, and how a particular proceeding should be conducted depend on the applicable legal framework.
Defined claim heads
Section 3(2) lists a range of questions and claims over which the Admiralty Court has jurisdiction. The official Bangla list includes heads concerning ship ownership, possession, co-ownership, mortgages and charges; damage caused by or to a ship; personal injury or loss of life connected with stated ship-related circumstances; cargo loss or damage; and claims arising from contracts concerning carriage in a ship or its use or hire. 1
The list also includes stated heads concerning salvage, towage, pilotage, supplies for operating or maintaining a ship, construction or repair, seafarer wages, expenditure connected with a ship, general average, and bottomry or respondentia. 1
These are statutory categories rather than conclusions about an individual claim. The English descriptions used here are high-level renderings of the official Bangla text, not certified translations. They do not determine liability, a remedy, a lien, priority, limitation, forum, or the availability of a proceeding.
Action in personam and action in rem
Section 4 provides, subject to section 5, that the High Court Division’s admiralty jurisdiction may be exercised by an action in personam. It separately identifies circumstances in which jurisdiction may be exercised by an action in rem against the relevant ship or property under the Act’s stated terms and conditions. 1
The distinction supplies statutory vocabulary, not a conclusion in any individual case. The Act’s conditions, definitions, party status, ownership language, claim characterisation and the current procedural law remain material. An action in rem is not treated here as a synonym for arrest or as a statement that a ship or other property may be detained, released, sold, or used as security.
Instituting an admiralty suit
Section 6 states that an admiralty suit is instituted by a written, signed and verified plaint in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. For an action in rem, the same section contains specific statutory wording about how the defendant may be described in the plaint. 1 The Code is the procedural statute named in that provision. 2
Section 6 does not itself provide a form, document list, service rule, court-fee calculation, timetable, registry practice, or electronic-filing procedure.
Source and date note
Primary source checked: the official Laws of Bangladesh print record for the Admiralty Court Act, 2000, accessed 21 September 2026. 1 The official Bangla record does not itself display a complete amendment history or a current consolidation statement. Section 10 of the Act contemplates a notified authentic English text and provides that the Act prevails in the event of conflict; no such Gazette text was verified in preparing this publication. 1
The English descriptions above should be checked against the current authoritative Bangla text by a Bangladesh-qualified maritime legal editor before publication. No Admiralty Rules, practice direction, registry process, or electronic-filing procedure is stated or relied on here.
Sources
The legal propositions above rely on the official Bangladesh legislation listed below. The official Code of Civil Procedure is included because section 6 of the Admiralty Court Act names it. 1
Reading the statutory framework in context
Sections 3, 4 and 6 form a connected statutory framework: they identify the Admiralty Court, list jurisdictional claim heads, distinguish the two route labels, and prescribe the basic form of institution. The framework does not resolve the facts or legal merits of a cargo, freight, charterparty, bunker, mortgage, lien, collision, injury, supply, or other maritime dispute.
Questions concerning arrest or release, priority, security, sale, costs, limitation, service, enforcement, court allocation, and litigation choices require the current authoritative statutory text, operative rules or practice directions where relevant, and analysis of the particular facts. The statutory record should therefore be read as the foundation for those questions, rather than as a substitute for their determination.