The Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for the government to recover and preserve the ancestral house of Bangla film icon Suchitra Sen in Pabna.
Imam Gazzali Trust, a Jamaat-e-Islami-backed organisation, has been occupying Suchitra Sen's first ancestral home at Gopalpur in the town for more than two decades. The organisation runs a kindergarten named Imam Gazzali Institute there.
Suchitra, whose original name was Krishna Dasgupta, left Pabna along with her family a few months before the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and settled in India.
The Appellate Division yesterday dismissed an appeal filed by Imam Gazzali Trust challenging a High Court verdict that had directed the government to take over the house of the silver screen legend.
The apex court also rejected a prayer of Imam Gazzali Trust to order the government to allocate it an alternative piece of land in Pabna to run the school.
Additional Attorney General Murad Reza and Deputy Attorney General Ekramul Haque Tutul told The Daily Star that there was no legal bar for the government to evict Imam Gazzali Trust from that house after the verdict.
They also said the government could possess the land for protecting and preserving Suchitra Sen's memories there.
Deputy Commissioner Kazi Ashraf Uddin of Pabna said his office would take necessary steps in this regard after receiving the SC order.
Imam Gazzali Trust's lawyer barrister Emran Siddiq told The Daily Star that he had not received instructions from his client about their next course of legal action.
Sultana, principal of Imam Gazzali Institute, said they would comply with the SC order, reports our Pabna correspondent. The kindergarten was found closed during a visit yesterday.
Following two separate writ petitions, the HC on August 21, 2011, directed Imam Gazzali Trust to forgo the possession of the house in two months and also directed the government to take necessary steps to safeguard and protect the memory of the legendary actress.
One of the petitions was filed by Imam Gazzali Trust in 2009 challenging a government order asking it to leave Suchitra's home.
The other petition, filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh in July, 2011, was regarding protection and maintenance of the house.
The Jamaat-backed organisation later filed an appeal with the SC challenging the HC verdict.
After holding hearing on the appeal, an Appellate Division bench of Justice Surendhra Kumer Sinha, Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik yesterday affirmed the HC verdict.
People of Pabna have hailed the SC order, reports our Pabna correspondent.
"The residents of Pabna are delighted as the ancestral home of Suchitra Sen is going to be free according to the Supreme Court order," said Md Saidul Haque Chunnu, president of Suchitra Sen Smrity Shangrakhhan Parishad.
In 1987, the district administration leased out Suchitra's home to Imam Gazzali Trust for a year but the organisation continued its occupation by renewing the lease every year.
A cross section of people of the district have been staging demonstrations to free the house from the occupation. Cultural activists and local elites formed Suchitra Sen Smrity Shangrakkhan Parishad in 2009.
Suchitra Sen, the legendry film actress of the subcontinent, was born on April 6, 1931, at her maternal grandfather's house at Bangabari of Sirajganj in Pabna. She passed her early life on Gopalpur Hem Sagor Lane of Pabna town.
The 0.21-acre house located on Gopalpur Hem Sagor Lane went under government custody as vested property.
Suchitra passed away on January 17 in Kolkata at the age of 82.