Sunday, January 12, 2014

Law Book Review

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a lot of books to my students, which ultimately fall them in a worthless deep ocean, where they just found mostly repealed, scattered, intricate and to some extent valueless laws.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.

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.