The High Court has temporarily halted the environmental clearance and renewal granted by the Department of Environment for the construction of the Rupayan Green Paradise project in Jafarabad, Dhaka.
The court issued a six-month stay on Sunday.
A bench of Justice Fahmida Quader and Justice Md Ashif Hasan passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association.
The court also issued a rule directing authorities to explain why they failed to protect the site of the proposed project, located in Jafarabad Sarai Mouza under the Dhaka North City Corporation, where a pond known as Patari Pond had been identified.
The bench further asked the government to explain why the environmental clearance and its renewal should not be declared illegal and why authorities should not be directed to restore and preserve the pond.
According to BELA, the 14-storey Rupayan Green Paradise project is being developed by Rupayan Housing Estate Limited on a 65.28-decimal plot of land that, according to 2019 satellite images, originally contained two ponds.
The secretaries of the ministries of environment, forest and climate change, land and industries, as well as the Dhaka North City Corporation administrator, BSCIC and Rajuk chairmen and the DoE director general, were asked to respond to the rule.