Khas Land in Bangladesh 2026: Settlement, Vested Property, Title Defects and Disputes with the Government

Khas land Bangladesh: what the State owns and how disputes begin in 2026

Khas land Bangladesh law treats as State property covers far more than idle government plots. It includes land thrown up by rivers and the sea, holdings whose owners died without heirs or abandoned cultivation, ceiling surplus, and land that once appeared on vested and abandoned property lists. Most of it is meant to reach landless families or produce public revenue. A large share of the disputes we see, however, involve private owners who discover that their land has been recorded as khas, listed as vested property or targeted in an eviction drive.

This guide explains how the State acquires khas land, how it is settled and leased, and how an owner challenges a wrongful khas record. It also covers the title deed defects that leave land exposed and the constitutional property rights owners can assert against the State. Where TRW has a detailed guide to a single remedy, we link to it rather than repeat it.

Summary: Khas land is land vested in and at the disposal of the Government. It arises mainly under the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act 1950, through river accretion, diluvion beyond thirty years, extinguished holdings and ceiling surplus, and is distributed under the Agricultural Khas Land Management and Settlement Policy 1997 or leased for non-agricultural use. A private owner whose land is wrongly recorded as khas can sue in the Land Survey Tribunal within the statutory window, bring a title suit against the Government, or seek a writ where the State acts without legal authority.

Key point: The Government's 180-day priority plan, announced in Parliament in 2026, uses the Recovery of Possession Ordinance 1970 and the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act 2023 to clear encroached State land. Owners who hold land near rivers, chars, railway tracts or old vested and abandoned listings should check the record of rights now, because an entry in the Government's name shifts the burden onto the owner to prove title.

At a glance

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Table of Contents

What khas land Bangladesh law recognises

"Khas" literally means held directly. In land administration it describes land that is vested in the Government and at its disposal, with no intermediate proprietor or tenant holding it. The State Acquisition and Tenancy Act 1950 is the main statute behind it. That Act abolished the zamindari system, brought raiyats directly under the Government and set out the circumstances in which land passes into the State's hands. For a framework view of the wider statutory scheme, see our overview of land law in Bangladesh.

Not every piece of public land is khas in this strict sense. Roads, railway land, forest reserves and land of statutory bodies are held by agencies under their own laws, although "khas" is used loosely for all of it. Many khas land Bangladesh disputes begin when an agency claims land as public property but cannot show how the State acquired it.

Diluvion and alluvion: sections 86 and 87

Bangladesh's rivers erode and rebuild land constantly, and the 1950 Act deals with both. Under section 86, a tenant whose land is lost by diluvion can have the loss recorded and the rent abated. That record later serves as evidence of title. The tenant's rights survive if the land reappears within thirty years of the loss. When it does, the Collector takes immediate possession, publishes notice, surveys and maps the land, and within 45 days of the survey allots it back to the former tenant or successors.[1]

Two limits matter. The returning owner's total holding cannot exceed sixty standard bighas, and any excess vests in the Government. Section 86 also does not apply where the land re-emerged because of artificial or mechanical processes in Government or authorised development works. The current section was substituted by the State Acquisition and Tenancy (Amendment) Act 1994.[1] Land that re-emerges after more than thirty years falls outside the restoration rule, and the Government will treat it as khas.

Section 87 is stricter. Land gained by accession from the recess of a river or the sea is not treated as an addition to the adjoining holding, whatever any other law says. It vests absolutely in the Government and is at its disposal. Claims to hold such accretions as an increment to a holding lapsed when the President's Order No. 137 of 1972 came into force.[1] This is why new chars are almost always recorded as khas, and why disputes over char land usually turn on whether the plot is genuinely new accretion or re-emerged land that belongs to someone.

Extinguishment of a raiyat's interest: section 92

Section 92 lists four situations in which a raiyat's interest ends and the holding can pass to the Government:

• the raiyat dies intestate leaving no heir entitled to inherit;
• the raiyat surrenders the holding by prescribed notice to the Revenue Officer at the end of an agricultural year;
• the raiyat abandons the holding, leaving his residence without arranging to pay rent and not cultivating it for three successive years; or
• the holding passes by inheritance to someone who is not a bona fide cultivator and who does not cultivate it for five years without sufficient cause.

The procedural safeguards matter. Before entering the holding, the Revenue Officer must publish notice of the intention and the reasons, invite objections and record a decision. Once the officer enters, the holding vests in the Government free from encumbrances, except in the no-heir case. An aggrieved person in an inheritance case may file a civil suit within ninety days of the order instead of a statutory appeal.[1] A khas entry that relies on section 92 without that notice and decision is open to challenge.

Ceiling surplus under the Land Reforms Act 2023

The Land Reforms Act 2023 (Act No. 37 of 2023) caps ownership of agricultural land at sixty bighas, however the land is acquired, with exceptions for tea, coffee and rubber gardens, export-oriented agricultural production and other listed uses. Chapter IV provides for homesteads on rural khas land for landless freedom fighters and their families and for landless farmers and labourers.[3] For large landholders, the ceiling remains a live route by which private land becomes khas.

Vested and abandoned property: the Ka and Kha lists

Vested and abandoned property are distinct from khas land, but the three overlap in practice, and many owners first meet the problem as a vested or abandoned listing. Vested property traces back to the enemy property regime introduced after the 1965 war. The High Court Division, following the Appellate Division in Aroti Rani Paul v Sudarshan Kumar Paul, has repeatedly held that this law died with the repeal of Ordinance No. 1 of 1969 on 23 March 1974, and that "no property can be enlisted as vested property on the basis of a defunct law".[5]

The Vested Property Return Act 2001 and the Kha schedule

The Vested Property Return Act 2001 was designed to return such property to original owners or their heirs. Lists were gazetted from 2012 in two schedules. The Ka list covered property the Government actually held. The Kha list covered property beyond government control, typically land still occupied by the owners or their successors.[4] The Kha listings reached property families had held and paid tax on for decades.

In 2013 Parliament amended the Act to repeal the Kha schedule. The practical effect, as applied by the Ministry of Land, is that property listed in the Kha schedule is treated as never having been vested property. Owners were directed through a ministry circular to clear unpaid land tax and complete mutation in their own names.[4] If land you own still shows a Kha listing in the record or at the union land office, the remedy is usually administrative: mutation and payment of land development tax on the strength of the amendment and circular, not litigation.

Challenging a Ka listing

Ka listings remain contested. In Md Humayun Kabir v Government of Bangladesh (Writ Petition No 2983 of 2019, decided 23 January 2024), a Dhaka plot sold in 1958 had been entered in the Ka list in 2012 on the strength of a vested property case started in 1977. Because that case began after the 1974 repeal, the High Court Division declared the listing without lawful authority. It directed the Government to release the land by fresh gazette notification and to accept rent from the owners within sixty days.[5]

The judgment also relied on Bangladesh v Syed Chand Sultana, 18 BLD (AD) 274. In that case the Appellate Division held that a writ petition challenging inclusion of property in an abandoned property list is maintainable without first applying to the Court of Settlement, because a wrongful listing violates the fundamental right to property.[5] Where the listing is plainly unlawful, the writ route under Article 102 is open. Where the facts or title are disputed, the specialist tribunal or a civil court is the safer forum. Our guide to writ petitions in Bangladesh explains when the High Court Division will intervene.

Abandoned buildings and the Court of Settlement

Abandoned property is a separate post-1971 regime. Under the Abandoned Buildings (Supplementary Provisions) Ordinance 1985, a building is declared abandoned by gazette notification. Anyone claiming an interest may apply to the Court of Settlement to have it excluded from the list, and the Court's decision is final and binding on the parties. In Mahmuda Khatun v Government of Bangladesh (Writ Petition No 6641 of 2021, judgment of 21 June 2026), the Court of Settlement had found a house wrongly listed in the Kha list of abandoned buildings. The Government neither appealed nor acted on the finding.[6]

The High Court Division held that "once a court of law declares a property not to be abandoned property, no further release order or notification from the Government is necessary". It held that the Government is bound to give effect to the decision and cannot refuse or defer mutation in the decree holder's name. It directed exclusion of the property from the list.[6]

Agricultural khas land settlement under the 1997 policy

Settlement of agricultural khas land is governed by the Agricultural Khas Land Management and Settlement Policy 1997, circulated by Ministry of Land memo on 16 April 1997 and published in the Gazette on 12 May 1997.[8] Departures from its clauses are a common ground of challenge.

Who qualifies as landless

The policy defines a landless family as one that depends mainly on agriculture but owns neither homestead nor agricultural land. A family with up to ten decimals of homestead land, no agricultural land and agriculture as its main livelihood also qualifies.[7] Within that group, the policy sets a priority order:

1. families displaced by riverbank erosion;
2. families of martyred or disabled freedom fighters;
3. widowed or divorced women with a working son;
4. families with neither homestead nor agricultural land;
5. landless families with homestead land only; and
6. families with homestead land and less than half an acre of agricultural land.[7]

How much land and who decides

The maximum settlement is one and a half acres per family in char areas and one acre elsewhere. Upazila Agricultural Khas Land Management and Settlement Committees identify available land, select eligible families and prepare proposals. District committees chaired by the Deputy Commissioner review and finalise them. A national executive committee sets policy and acts as the appellate authority. The Assistant Commissioner (Land) handles the transfer and the issue of the khatian.[7]

Clause 21 of the policy gives landless people of the mouza where the land lies priority, with surplus land going to landless people of an adjacent mouza at the district committee's discretion.[8] Local priority is often where khas land Bangladesh settlement disputes are fought, with proxy applicants and families already in possession competing for the same plots.

Heirs, kabuliyat breaches and cancellation

Md Khursed Alam v Bangladesh (Writ Petition No 1860 of 2014, decided 8 January 2026) shows how the High Court Division approaches these disputes. A settlement had been approved in 1990 for a disabled landless man, but no deed was executed before he died. The upazila committee later recommended cancellation for breach of the kabuliyat, the settlement agreement. The Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) found no evidence of a breach and directed registration in favour of the heirs.[8]

The Court upheld that order. It held that lawful heirs are entitled to a settlement granted to their deceased predecessor. It also held that cases approved before 13 August 1996 but never registered remain valid under the policy's transitional clause. It added that disputed questions of fact cannot be decided in writ jurisdiction. Rival applicants who apply years after the land has been settled will rarely displace the original grantee.[8]

Non-agricultural khas land leases

Khas land in towns, at bazaars, along highways and in commercial districts is not settled with landless families. It is leased for non-agricultural use, either on long-term leases or on short annual terms. The Non-Agricultural Khas Land Settlement Policy 1995 is the main administrative instrument. Many of the most valuable disputes, however, concern older long-term leases granted before it, which the Government has since tried to reprice.[9]

The Segunbagicha leasehold flats case

In a group of about twenty writ petitions led by Writ Petition No 9643 of 2014, decided on 8 February 2021, apartment owners in Segunbagicha, Dhaka held flats built on non-agricultural khas land leased for thirty-year terms. A Ministry of Land circular of 17 October 1985 had said long-term leases would be deemed permanently settled and need no renewal. A further circular of 12 November 1986 said no permission was needed for subsequent transfers. In 2005 the Government cancelled the 1985 circular. A 2011 order then demanded payments calculated by reference to market value on transfer and renewal, and the authorities refused to accept rent.[9]

The High Court Division accepted that the Government may cancel its own earlier order. It held, however, that the 2005 cancellation could operate only prospectively and could not take away rights of those whose land was already permanently settled. Because the lessees had changed their position in reliance on the 1985 and 1986 circulars, the Government was bound by promissory estoppel. The 2011 order applied only to leases entered into after 7 June 2005. The Court directed the authorities to register and mutate the flats where required and to accept rent.[9]

What lessees and buyers should check

Anyone buying a flat, shop or plot on leased khas land should obtain the original lease, the kabuliyat and every transfer permission, check whether the lease predates June 2005 and confirm that rent has recently been accepted. An expired or improperly transferred lease can leave the occupier treated as an encroacher. Our guide to land ownership verification and due diligence sets out the full document checklist. The points above are the khas-specific additions to it.

How private land gets wrongly recorded as khas

Most khas land Bangladesh disputes involving private owners begin not with an eviction notice but with a record. Survey teams and revenue officials can enter land in the Government's name, often in khatian No. 1, the Collector's khas khatian. The error surfaces years later, when rent is refused, a mutation is rejected or a notice to vacate arrives.

Common routes into the khas khatian

• Survey errors. During a revisional or digital survey, land in the owner's possession but with a weak paper trail is recorded as khas because nobody attends the field stages or produces documents.
• Diluvion records. Land recorded as lost to the river is treated as khas when it re-emerges, even though the owner's thirty-year window under section 86 is still open.
• Old vested and abandoned listings. Entries derived from post-1974 vested property cases or contested abandoned listings carry through into the record.
• Section 92 entries without process. Holdings are treated as abandoned or heirless without the published notice and decision the Act requires.
• Ceiling and acquisition overlaps. Land acquired for one project, or declared surplus, is recorded over a wider area than the acquisition or declaration actually covered.

Why the record matters so much

Md Nurul Islam (heirs) v Government of Bangladesh shows the burden an owner faces once land sits in khas khatian No. 1. The plaintiffs sued for declaration of title to 15.16 acres in Joypurhat after the tahsildar refused their rent in 1992, saying the land had become khas. On 17 December 2025 the High Court Division dismissed their appeal.[10]

The Court held that an amalnama is a record of possession, not a formal deed of transfer. It held that paying rent by opening a separate holding does not create title. It also held that a declaration cannot be made over unspecified portions of land, because the suit land must be specified.[10] The case was lost on proof, not law.

Challenging a khas land Bangladesh record: choosing the right forum

There are four main routes, and they are not interchangeable. The choice depends on what went wrong (a survey entry, a listing, an administrative order or a dispute over title) and on how long ago the record was finally published.

Land Survey Tribunal under section 145A

Where the error lies in the last finally published record of rights, the specialist forum is the Land Survey Tribunal under section 145A of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act 1950. Any person aggrieved by the final publication may sue within one year of the publication or of the establishment of the Tribunal, whichever is later. A late suit may be admitted within a further year if the Tribunal accepts the reasons for delay. The Tribunal must conclude the trial within 180 days of the date fixed for final hearing. It can declare the record incorrect and direct the land office to correct it.[1]

Where the Government is the recorded owner, it is sued through the Deputy Commissioner. Tribunal procedure, evidence and the 2025 limits on appeals are covered in our guide to khatian correction in Bangladesh.

Title suit against the Government

Once the Tribunal window has closed, or where the real dispute is title rather than the record, the remedy is a civil suit for declaration of title, with recovery of possession or an injunction as further relief, against the Government. The record of rights carries a presumption of correctness, so the plaintiff must displace it with the chain of deeds, earlier khatians, rent receipts and evidence of possession. Our guide to title suits in Bangladesh covers the section 42 declaration, the further-relief proviso and court fees. The Nurul Islam judgment shows what the evidence must look like when the defendant is the State.

Writ petition where the State acts without authority

A writ under Article 102 is appropriate where the State's action has no legal basis on the face of the record. Examples are a vested property listing built on a case started after 1974, a refusal to implement a final tribunal decree, or a lease cancellation contrary to a binding circular. The Humayun Kabir, Mahmuda Khatun and Segunbagicha decisions all fall into this category.[5] [6] [9] Where facts are disputed, the High Court Division will decline, as it did in Khursed Alam.[8]

Administrative correction and mutation

Clerical errors and some fraudulent entries can be corrected by the Assistant Commissioner (Land) without litigation. Owners whose Kha schedule listing fell away in 2013 should also proceed administratively, through mutation and payment of land development tax.[4] Our guides to land mutation and khatian correction explain the procedure. TRW's land records, mutation and khatian correction practice handles these applications and the appeals that follow.

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Illegal occupation and the 2025–26 eviction drives

Recovery of encroached State land is now a stated government priority. On 7 July 2026, Land Minister Mizanur Rahman Minu told Parliament that recovering illegally occupied government land, and distributing reclaimed khas land to eligible landless people, forms part of the Government's 180-day priority plan. Medium- and long-term strategies on encroachment sit alongside it, and funds have been allocated to Deputy Commissioners for field operations.[12]

The Minister also said that poor families who have lived in one place for forty to forty-five years would be allotted khas land through the Deputy Commissioner, if necessary one to two kathas per family.[12] Long-settled occupiers should therefore document their residence, rather than assume that eviction is the only outcome.

The legal tools behind the drives

The Minister named three instruments: the Government and Local Authority Lands and Buildings (Recovery of Possession) Ordinance 1970, the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act 2023 and the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Rules 2024.[12] Section 11 of the 2023 Act makes it an offence to occupy or enter land held by a government, semi-government or autonomous body, or land meant for public use, to build on it or to damage it. The penalty is up to two years' imprisonment and a fine.[11]

Section 14 empowers the Deputy Commissioner to remove the occupation, structures and unlawful fill and to restore the land to its former class. Until rules prescribe the procedure, the 1970 Ordinance applies.[11] The 1970 Ordinance's notice and appeal procedure is explained in our guide to recovery of possession. The private-dispute side of the 2023 Act, including restoration of possession by the Executive Magistrate, is covered in our guide to a land grabbing case in Bangladesh.

When the "encroacher" claims title

The summary eviction tools assume the land is the Government's; they do not decide title. An occupier with deeds and khatians showing private ownership should answer any notice in writing, attach the documents and appeal within time, while filing in the Tribunal or civil court if the record itself is wrong. A documented title suit with a prompt injunction application carries more weight than resistance at the site.

The reverse also matters. A buyer whose seller's title rests on khas land, and the buyer's contractors, risk liability under section 11 once they build.[11]

Title deed issues Bangladesh buyers meet most often

Khas land Bangladesh claims usually succeed against private owners because the owner's own papers are weak. The defects buyers and heirs meet most often fall into a handful of categories, each with its own fix.

Missing links in the chain of title

Every sale deed must now carry the latest khatian in the seller's name, or in a predecessor's name for inherited land. It must also carry a brief description of the property's ownership over the last twenty-five years, a map and the seller's affidavit that the land has not been transferred before.[13] Older chains often fail that test. A deed is missing, an heir's share was never partitioned, or a transfer was recorded only in a rent receipt. The fix is to trace the gap: certified copies from the sub-registry and record room, succession documents for inheritance links, and a confirmatory or rectification deed where the original parties or their heirs are available.

Forged and fraudulent deeds

A forged deed transfers nothing, but it can still sit in the registry and the record of rights and cloud the true owner's title. The civil remedy is cancellation or a declaration that the deed is void, with the criminal route under the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act 2023 running alongside. Limitation, court fees and evidence for these suits are covered in our guide to a deed cancellation suit in Bangladesh.

Unregistered or defective powers of attorney

Many sales by expatriate owners go through an attorney. Under the Power of Attorney Act 2012, an irrevocable power to sell or mortgage immovable property, or to develop land in return for a share, must be registered, and section 52A of the Registration Act applies to it. The instrument must state the grantor's purpose and the attorney's powers, and carry photographs and national identity card copies of both parties. A power executed abroad must be authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and stamped by the Collector after it arrives in Bangladesh.[14]

A sale made under an unregistered, unauthenticated or expired power is open to attack by the owner or the owner's heirs. Our power of attorney guide explains revocation and the documents a sub-registrar will demand.

Mismatched dag and khatian numbers

Each survey renumbers plots (dags) and holdings (khatians). A deed that describes land by CS or SA numbers, a mutation that uses RS numbers and a current BS record that shows a different area or plot can each be accurate on its own terms and still fail to match. Mismatch is the commonest reason a buyer cannot mutate, and a common way land drifts into a khas khatian. The fix is a plot-by-plot concordance across surveys, prepared from certified maps, followed by mutation or a Tribunal suit if the current record is wrong.

Unregistered transfers and undocumented possession

Under the Registration Act, a document that must be registered and is not cannot affect rights in immovable property. Sale deeds, gifts and heba declarations, mortgages and leases of more than a year all require registration.[13] Families relying on an unregistered agreement, an amalnama or decades of rent payments are where the Nurul Islam plaintiffs were: possession and rent receipts help, but do not alone prove title against the State.[10]

Khas, vested or acquired land sold as private

The most dangerous defect is land that was never the seller's to sell: an occupied khas plot, a Ka-listed property or land already acquired for a project. No rectification cures it. The protection is pre-purchase verification against the khas khatian, the vested and abandoned lists, and acquisition records at the Deputy Commissioner's office. Our sale deed guide covers the registration steps that follow once title is clean.

Property rights in Bangladesh: the constitutional baseline

Property rights Bangladesh citizens hold against the State start with Article 42 of the Constitution. Every citizen has the right to acquire, hold, transfer or otherwise dispose of property, subject to restrictions imposed by law. No property may be compulsorily acquired, nationalised or requisitioned save by authority of law. Clause (2), as substituted by the Fifteenth Amendment in 2011, requires any such law to provide for compensation, either by fixing the amount or by setting the principles for assessing and paying it. A law cannot be struck down because the compensation it provides is inadequate.[2]

What Article 42 does and does not protect

Article 42 protects against arbitrary takings, not lawful regulation. Ceilings, vesting under the 1950 Act and compulsory acquisition are restrictions "by law" and survive if the statutory conditions are met. What the Article catches is State action without a lawful basis, such as a listing under a repealed law or a refusal to give effect to a decree. Syed Chand Sultana, holding that a wrongful listing violates the fundamental right to property, is the clearest application in this context.[5]

Acquisition and requisition

Where the State wants private land for a public purpose, it must use acquisition law, with notice, objections, an award and compensation. It cannot simply record the land as khas. Owners facing a project should insist that the acquisition procedure be followed and should check the scope of the notice against the plots actually entered. Our separate guide to land acquisition in Bangladesh in 2026 covers notices, compensation, objections and challenges. TRW's land acquisition practice acts for owners and project sponsors.

Legal rights for landowners, step by step

Translating property rights into protection is mostly discipline. Keep the paper chain complete and certified. Mutate promptly after every purchase or inheritance, and pay land development tax every year so the holding is never treated as abandoned. Attend survey stages and object at the draft stage. Respond in writing, and within time, to every notice from a land office. When a dispute does arise, choose the forum that matches the problem, as set out above. In khas land Bangladesh litigation, these inexpensive habits are often what decides the case.

Khas land Bangladesh checklist for owners, buyers and settlees

Owners should obtain current certified khatians for every plot and check for khatian No. 1, vested or abandoned listings and acquisition notices. If any appears, note the date of final publication at once, because the Tribunal clock may already be running. Buyers and lenders should treat any khas, vested or acquisition entry in the history as a stop sign, not a pricing point, and tie payment to mutation in the buyer's name. Land along rivers, on chars, beside railway and highway land and in former abandoned property neighbourhoods is high-risk by default.

Landless settlees and long-term occupiers should apply through the upazila committee, register the settlement deed, comply with the kabuliyat and, if an eviction notice arrives, appeal in time with residence evidence on record.[8] [12] In every khas land Bangladesh dispute, the strongest party is the one who can show, plot by plot, how the land came to them and when the State's record went wrong. TRW's real estate disputes practice acts in Tribunal suits, title suits against the Government, writ petitions and eviction challenges.

Frequently asked questions

What is khas land in Bangladesh?

Khas land is land vested in and at the disposal of the Government, held directly without an intermediate owner or tenant. It arises mainly under the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act 1950, for example through river accretion, land re-emerging after thirty years and extinguished holdings.[1]

Who owns land that rises from a river?

New land formed by the recess of a river or the sea vests absolutely in the Government under section 87. Land that was lost by diluvion and reappears within thirty years is restored to the former tenant under section 86, subject to a sixty standard bigha ceiling.[1]

Who can get agricultural khas land?

Landless families dependent on agriculture under the 1997 policy, with priority for families displaced by river erosion and families of martyred or disabled freedom fighters. The maximum is one acre, or one and a half acres in char areas.[7]

Can heirs keep a khas land settlement?

Yes. In January 2026 the High Court Division confirmed that lawful heirs are entitled to a settlement granted to their deceased predecessor, and refused cancellation where breach of the kabuliyat was not proved.[8]

What happened to the Kha schedule of vested property?

Parliament repealed it by amendment in 2013. Property listed in the Kha schedule is treated as never having been vested, and owners complete mutation and pay land tax in their own names.[4]

My land is recorded in khas khatian No. 1. What should I do?

Check the date of final publication. Within one year, or a further year with sufficient cause, sue in the Land Survey Tribunal under section 145A. After that, file a title suit against the Government supported by a complete chain of documents.[1] [10]

Do rent receipts prove ownership against the Government?

Not on their own. The High Court Division held in December 2025 that paying rent by opening a separate holding does not create title, and that an amalnama is not a deed of transfer.[10]

What law is used to evict people from khas land in 2026?

The Recovery of Possession Ordinance 1970, the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act 2023 and its 2024 Rules. Section 14 of the 2023 Act lets the Deputy Commissioner remove illegal occupation of government land.[11] [12]

Can the Government cancel a long-term non-agricultural khas lease?

It can change policy for the future, but in the Segunbagicha case the High Court Division held that the 2005 cancellation of the 1985 circular operated only prospectively and that the Government was bound by promissory estoppel to earlier lessees.[9]

Does the Constitution protect property rights in Bangladesh?

Yes. Article 42 guarantees the right to acquire, hold, transfer and dispose of property, subject to restrictions by law, and permits compulsory acquisition only by authority of a law that provides for compensation.[2]