The country's two Courts of Settlement, which mainly deal with abandoned property disputes, have been inactive for over a year now due to bureaucratic tangles and negligence.

At least 400 cases are pending with the courts that operate under the housing and public works ministry, said a ministry source.

According to government rules, the First and the Second Court of Settlement cannot start their yearly business, from June 1 to May 31, without a government order on retention of administrative and judicial officials for them.

But much to the sufferings of the justice seekers, the judicial functions of the courts remained suspended for last business year, as no such order came from the housing ministry, a court source said.

This forced 16-member staff of the courts to sit idle for over a year. A district and sessions judge, who functions as a chairman, and an additional district and sessions judge and a deputy secretary, who are members of each of the settlement courts, are among them.

Resentment runs deep among the court staff, as the ministry remains indifferent to the standstill.

According to a court source, officials of the ministry either lack the efficiency needed to do the job within a timeframe or just duck the responsibilities.

The ministry officials though acknowledged the yearlong stagnancy at the settlement courts but denied the allegation of negligence.

"We too are concerned at the stalemate and doing our best to end the situation," Rafiqul Alam, assistant secretary of the ministry, said.

The ministry used to give the retention order for all gazetted and non-gazetted posts at the settlement courts on having some general opinions from the establishment ministry and finance ministry, he said.

"But last year the finance ministry involved different ministries in the process of retention orders, making it lengthy and complicated," Alam observed.

The direction obliges the housing ministry to seek opinion from the law ministry about retention order for the judicial cadres of the settlement courts, he added.

"After completing all these formalities, we could give the retention orders for the judicial posts at the courts on October 26, 2004," said the assistant secretary.

The finance ministry has assigned the establishment ministry as well to give decision regarding retention order for the administrative posts, but the establish ministry has yet to make any decision in this regard, thereby aggravating the situation at the settlement courts, Alam added.

The housing ministry forwarded the matter of retention order to the establishment ministry on September 2 last year, said a housing ministry official, adding, "Since then we have been regularly reminding the officials concerned, but they do not pay heed to that."

Hamidur Rahman, assistant secretary of the establishment ministry, denied the allegation, and said, "We received the files from the housing ministry only 10 to 15 days ago."

A settlement court employee requesting anonymity said, "It is quite natural that different ministries are now blaming each other for the situation, because they know that an overall negligence on their part has been responsible for it."