At least 2.5 lakh cases are pending before land survey tribunals (LSTs) across the country. This is causing immense suffering for litigants, as they are not getting justice despite the lapse of many years after filing of cases. There were less than 2 lakh cases before the LSTs last year, but the number is now more than 2.5 lakh, sources said. Although there is a provision in the law to form an appeal tribunal for ensuring more justice, it is yet to be formed. Aggrieved litigants are unable to appeal against an LST decision, if any. They have to file writ petitions before the High Court to seek remedy, sources added.
The Bangladesh Survey Revised (BSR) began in 1984, but it is yet to be completed. In some places, the BSR has been completed, but there are a lot of errors as survey officials were involved in massive corruption in completing the BSR. As a result, land owners had to face severe problems in recovering lands. The owners could not demand any revision in the survey done wrongly by the officials. The government had formed 42 LSTs to solve problems that arose following the erroneous survey. Besides, a single tribunal has been formed for Dhaka considering its importance.
A joint district level judge will conduct trial proceedings of the cases pending before the LSTs. Although the government has appointed judges for the LSTs, the backlog of cases is yet to be reduced, sources said. According to the sources, at least 44,152 cases are pending before the Kishorganj LST, 32,676 at Mymensingh,  17,951 at Jamalpur, 7,438 at Dhaka, 6,983 at Satkhira, 9,126 at Chandpur, 21,863 at Netrokona, 10,809 at Tangail, 6, 467 at Sherpur and 6,222 cases are pending before the Barguna LST. Similarly, a large number of cases are pending before LSTs across the country.
It is learnt that the land ministry issued a circular on September 23 last year following the unprecedented increase in the number
of landdispute cases. The circular said that land dispute cases have been increasing in various districts after the final copy of the BSR was released. Litigants have been approaching the LSTs for years to get justice, but the cases were not disposed of quickly due to the insufficient number of tribunals, as well as absence of appeal tribunal.
 The Supreme Court took the initiative to form the appeal tribunal. “We held several meetings with the land and law secretaries to form the appeal tribunal. But there was no visible progress on the matter,” said a senior official of the Supreme Court.
 State minister for land, Saifuzzman Chowdhury, said: “We are dealing with several issues. We are moving ahead after completing our previous plan. We will take steps to form the appeal tribunal.”  Talking to The Independent, advocate Shah Monjurul Haque said as per the law, it was mandatory for the government to form the appeal tribunal to ensure justice for litigants. “But we do not know why the government has not formed the tribunal,” he added.
 In the absence of the appeal tribunal, aggrieved litigants are moving the High Court by filing writ petitions, challenging the legality of the LST orders. Writ petitions relating to land disputes are increasing with each passing day, the lawyer noted.
 Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said the government should form the appeal tribunal immediately considering the greater interest of the litigants. Referring to the High Court order, Khan said that in a suo motu move the HC had on March 3, 2015 issued a rule asking the government why it should not be directed to form an appeal tribunal in accordance with the law. The law and land secretaries had been made respondents to reply to the rule within four weeks. But they are yet to reply, he added.