Bangladesh’s shipping legislation treats a registered ship mortgage, a charge, an admiralty claim and a maritime lien as distinct concepts. The distinction matters when considering the legal character of security over a vessel and the statutory mechanism through which mortgage rights are recorded. Section 40 of the Bangladesh Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1983 establishes a recording mechanism and a priority rule for recorded mortgages over the same ship or share. The Admiralty Court Act, 2000 separately refers to claims concerning a mortgage or charge and, in another provision, to property subject to a maritime lien or other charge. The provisions support a distinction between those terms; they do not provide an overall hierarchy for maritime claims. The statutory record must therefore be read according to the particular interest and provision in question.
The legal frame
The Admiralty Court Act uses separate concepts
The official text of the Admiralty Court Act, 2000 identifies the High Court Division as the Admiralty Court. In its list of admiralty matters, the Act includes a claim concerning a mortgage or charge on a ship. Separately, section 4(3) refers to money claimed in respect of property on which there is a maritime lien or other charge.1
Those provisions treat a ship mortgage or charge and a maritime lien as distinct statutory concepts. They do not, by themselves, define every maritime lien, identify which claims give rise to one, or state how a lien ranks against a registered mortgage.1
What the registered-mortgage provision says
Section 40 of the Bangladesh Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1983 provides that a registered ship or a share in one may be security for a loan or other valuable consideration. It requires the mortgage instrument to be produced to the registrar of the ship’s port of registry for recording in the Register Book. A mortgage recorded in that way is called a registered mortgage.2
The same section provides a specific rule where more than one mortgage has been recorded over the same ship or share: those recorded mortgages have priority by their respective recording dates, rather than by the dates of their instruments.2
The recording rule and its application
The statutory rule addresses priority among more than one recorded mortgage over the same ship or share.2 It does not state a general ranking for all maritime interests.
The official materials reviewed do not establish how a registered mortgage ranks against a maritime lien, another charge, a statutory claim, an insolvency claim or proceeds in a particular sale. Nor do they establish the current procedural rules, evidential requirements, timing, costs, remedies or outcome of a dispute.
A mortgage is not simply ownership or a private sale power
The Ordinance states that, except as needed to make the mortgaged ship or share available as security for the mortgage debt, a mortgagee is not deemed to be the owner merely because of the mortgage; the mortgagor is not deemed to have ceased to be owner.3
It also states that a mortgagee under a registered mortgage may recover the amount due by appropriate proceeding in the High Court Division. The High Court Division may direct sale in execution when passing a decree or afterwards. Subject to that provision, the Ordinance says that a mortgagee is not merely by virtue of the mortgage entitled to sell or otherwise dispose of the mortgaged ship or share.4
These provisions describe the status of the mortgagee and the statutory remedy in stated terms. They do not set out the current procedural rules, evidential requirements, timing, costs, remedies or outcome of a dispute concerning a particular mortgage or vessel.
Why maritime-lien questions require separate authority
The Admiralty Court Act uses the term “maritime lien” in its action in rem provision, but the text reviewed does not set out a complete analysis of a lien’s creation, classification, priority, enforcement or interaction with registered mortgages.1
The Act also contemplates Supreme Court rules and refers to a Gazette-published authentic English text, while providing that the Act prevails if there is an inconsistency with that English text.1 The current Bangla text, material amendments, applicable Gazette instruments, rules, practice directions and relevant case law remain material to the application of the terminology.
Sources and date
Official Bangladesh government sources for this publication were accessed on 21 September 2026. The Laws of Bangladesh portal identifies itself as the Information System of the Laws of Bangladesh and identifies the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, in its footer.5 The official Department of Shipping page updated on 12 May 2026 lists the Bangladesh Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1983 and separate amendment materials, but neither that listing nor the statutory pages located for this research provides a complete current-consolidation or case-law record.6
Reading the statutory record in context
The statutory materials establish a recorded-mortgage regime for a registered ship or share, including a recording-date rule for priority among recorded mortgages. They also distinguish mortgage and charge claims from the Act’s reference to a maritime lien or other charge. The materials do not convert that mortgage-recording rule into a complete priority framework for maritime liens or other claims. Questions concerning the effect of those interests depend on the relevant statutory text and the applicable rules, Gazette materials and case law.