No forest land, reserve or not, can be allocated or leased out if that could damage the country’s forest, the High Court said yesterday. 

It also directed the government to protect and preserve all the forests.

Delivering the verdict on a writ petition, the court ordered the authorities concerned not to lease any land of the forest classified under section-4 of the Forest Act-1927 to any shipbreaking yard.      

The HC also declared illegal a lease agreement under which the deputy commissioner of Chattogram leased out 7.1 acres of forest land to BBC Steel Ltd, a shipbreaking company, at Uttar Salimpur under Sitakunda Police Station. 

On December 26, 2018, the agreement was signed and renewed on March 21 last year.

The HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman delivered the judgment after Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) filed a writ petition challenging the agreement.

Details of the HC observation and grounds on which the verdict was delivered could not be known as its full text was not released yesterday. 

After getting the lease, BBC Steel Ltd cut some trees there and built a road to establish a shipbreaking yard, Sayeed Ahmed Kabir, a lawyer for Bela, told The Daily Star.

On April 28 last year, Bela filed the petition with the HC seeking necessary order on the government to protect and preserve the forest area at Uttar Salimpur.

The HC on May 13 issued a rule asking the authorities concerned of the government and BBC Steel Ltd to explain why the lease agreement should not be declared illegal. It also directed the authorities to stop constructing the shipbreaking yard in the area.

After holding hearings on the rule, the court yesterday delivered the verdict.

Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury, the lawyer for BBC Steel Ltd, told The Daily Star that his client would move an appeal before the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division challenging the HC judgment.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Minhajul Haque Chowdhury appeared for the petitioner.