DHAKA: The Supreme Court Sunday dismissed the leave to appeal filed by Imam Gazzali Trust challenging the High Court order that asked it to vacate the ancestral house of Bangla movie legend Suchitra Sen for setting up a memorial museum.

The bench of Appellate division headed-by Justice SK Sinha passed the order rejecting the plea to file an appeal before it against the High Court order. 

Following the refusal of leave to appeal, there is no bar to set up Suchitra Sen memorial museum, says additional attorney general Murad Reza.

Murad Reza moved for the state while former attorney general AJ Mohammad Ali stood for the Imam Gazzali Trust.

Earlier on August 22, 2011, the High Court directed the Imam Gazzali Trust to clear out of the ancestral home in Pabna of Suchitra Sen within two months.

The house is now occupied by the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam's Imam Gazzali Trust that runs a kindergarten school from the building.

 In 1965, the Pakistan government declared ‘Suchitra Sen’s house in Pabna “enemy property”. In 1981, the Bangladesh government leased the house for six years to Imam Gazzali Trust. But, the house is still in the possession of the institute.

Later in June 1991, the trust appealed to the government for permanent possession of the house, but the government turned down the plea. Pabna residents and various cultural organizations, in early 2009, raised  the demand to take back the house from the Jamaat and convert it into a museum.

Then the district administration, that June, cancelled the lease given to Jamaat and served an eviction notice on the trust. 

But the trust filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court, which granted a stay on eviction.

Later, Iman Gazzali Trust filed writ petition in 2009 challenging a government order asking it to leave the paternal house of Suchitra Sen.

Following the petition, the HC the same year stayed the government order and issued a rule why its order should not be declared illegal. 

BDST: 1312 HRS, MAY 04, 2014