There exists a
common perception in our country that laws relating to land are complex and it
is expert job to understand and apply the law. Indeed, it is true that the method
of land measurement system requires expert knowledge. Moreover, units to
measure land are quite peculiar and not universal across the country. On the
contrary, because of high growth of population and scarcity of land, land
related disputes are increased day by day, which possessed about 80% of our
total civil litigation.
However, apart
from these scenarios, there is also real scarcity of a single academic book,
which contains all aspects of current land laws. Because the area of our land
law is gigantic and these subject matters are discuss individually in numerous
books. When I started my carrier at an university, I was assigned to conduct
classes on land laws. I can remember those days when I felt unaided because of
my failure to discover an useful sole book on land laws. Consequently, I
suggested a lot of books to my students, which ultimately fall them in a
worthless deep ocean, where they just found mostly repealed, scattered,
intricate and to some extent valueless laws. I want to give thanks to Dr. M Towhidul Islam,
who takes initiative to rescue the students from that bottomless marine by his
new book titled “Lectures on Land Law”.
Our customary scholastic
land law books typically contain history; the State Acquisition & Tenancy
Act, 1950; the Non-Agricultural & Tenancy Act, 1949; provisions of
pre-emption; alluvion-diluvion, acquisition-requisition and some other portion
of land law individually while this book covers creation, transfer and
extermination of land rights in single cover. This discussed book introduces
immutable facets of land law under a single shadow, which includes provisions
relating to registration, easement, public demand recovery, trust, lease,
mortgage, transfer of immoveable property and other inalienable materials concerning
real property; though precisely. Normally we studied these topics separately
whereas global students follow this pattern to study real estate law all over
the earth.
This distinct
book also discusses on almost all indissoluble parts of land law i.e. land
administration, settlement of Khas land, Khatiyan, mutation, land taxes
etc. Author mainly formulates this book by his class lectures, which also
reflects in the name of his book. Consequently, the book will be more
accessible for the teachers and students to realize multifaceted issues of land
law in easy and class friendly way. More importantly, Dr. Islam release them
form buying topic wise books. Another reason behind intricacy of land law is
use of obscure words and foggy languages even in Bangla books whereas Towhidul
Islam constructs every sentence intelligibly. Now students will obtain dual
benefit from this single book; one is purely academic knowledge and rest on is
practical aspects like dispute, which is more important for a to-be lawyer.
Lectures on Land
Law is inimitable because it creates scopes for further discussion and I believe
that the author will be able to arise question in readers’ mind and it will
help them to increase their curiosity to unveil the untouched corner of land
management instead of reluctance and complexity to land matters. In addition,
this Asso. Prof. of law also writes his book in such a lucid manner where his
prospective readers can find a scope to think from practitioners’ perspective.
Book’s Title: Lectures on Land Law
Author: Dr. Mohammad Towhidul Islam
Publisher: Northern University Bangladesh (NUB)
First Published: June 2013
Price shown: 500 Taka
Pages: 546
First chapter of
the mentioned book deals with importance of studying land laws and introductory
issues. In next chapters (2-4) the writer enumerates historical development,
ownership and land administration in Bangladesh.
Chapter five of this book handles with acquisition of Zamindary system
and its impact. The next following chapters (6-9) elucidate tenancy rights, record
of rights, transfer, consolidation, amalgamation & sub-division of land. Then
in chapter ten & eleven, Dr. Islam narrates about registration and
procedure of mutation. Subsequently, he inscribes about pre-emption,
sub-letting, alluvion-diluvion, easement and prescription in chapter 12-15
respectively. After that, in chapter 16-18 the book illustrates provisions
regarding acquisition & requisition of land, abandoned and vested
properties. Later, Towhidul explains land taxes, certificate cases and management
& settlement of Khas lands in chapter 19-21. At last, in chapter 22
this faculty member of DU articulates process of land reforms that can aid the
community to ensure economic and social justice by providing painless and equal
access to land and land administration in Bangladesh.
The book is not
comprehensive one rather a beginning for further thinking. However, the piece could
be a good instrument for the students to cope with current land laws. I trust,
it will also be able enough to inspire them to explore untouched corners of
land matters and land related injustice of the country. I hope author will
insert more illustrations, maps, images, charts, forms & case laws in its
upcoming version to make the book more easy for the lay man also. The book is
mainly aimed for law students; nevertheless, I expect it will also be a supportive
material for academicians, lawyers, judges, researchers, NOGs and interested
readers to diminish their inquisitiveness.
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