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Divorce in Bangladesh can be given in two ways. One is mutual divorce which is allowed under section 8 of The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961 and the other is one sided divorce. One sided divorce can be from either the husband or the wife.

Mutual divorce is basically both parties entering an agreement regarding the divorce and the effect of divorce. For example agreement is reached regarding custody of child, maintenance, dower etc. In case of mutual divorce since both the parties are aware of the divorce, notice is not required. No party will have any right over each other after mutual divorce. Mutual divorce certificate is usually issued within 3 to 5 working days.

The divorce process in Bangladesh is very simple. A notice of divorce will be sent to the husband and the concerned city corporation by registered post. After receiving the notice City Corporation will issue 3 notices in 3 months time period for amenable settlement between the parties. And during this 3months times the wife will maintain Iddah period. During Iddah period a woman cannot remarry.

After 3 months of receiving the notice, City Corporation will issue an order sheet regarding divorce. Then the Marriage and Divorce registrar will issue the divorce certificate.working days.

As soon as the notice is sent to the last known address of the other party, the notice is deemed to be communicated. It does not matter if anyone of the party does not receive the notice of divorce.

Divorce has nothing to do with getting dower money. Women are always entitled to get the dower money irrespective of who is giving the divorce as dower is the right of the women. However, if consummation has not taken place between husband and wife then the wife is entitled to half the settled dower. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to prove that consummation has not taken place between husband and wife.

If a husband, while being married, procures a marriage of himself, it will be an offence under section 494 or 495 of the penal code and the second marriage will be void.

The question often asked is that whether any action can be taken against the other party after getting divorce. The answer is no. But what is often done by parties after divorce is filing false case under The Dowry Prohibition Act 1980, Nari o shishu Nirjaton Damon Ain (Act xviii of 1995) or for non-payment of Dower.

Even if the child is under the custody of the mother, the father needs to provide child maintenance and support depending on the expenditure of the child for instance schools fees, travel expenses, and other various expenses.

The wife is entitled to receive maintenance during the iddah period i.e 3 months after divorce. After the iddah period is over the husband is not bound to give maintenance to the wife.

Under Islamic law Father is always the legal guardian of a child. However, custody is different from legal guardianship. Custodial guardianship decides who will have the physical custody of the child.

Generally, a mother gets the custody of a girl child until the girl reach puberty and for a boy child, a mother gets custody until he reaches 7years. However, after this time limit custody of child does not shift to the father automatically.

Getting custody of a child also depends on various facts, for instance, the age of the child, financial condition, family members of each party, if there are more people to take care of the child in the family etc.

The major laws governing the ownership of movable and immovable properties, namely the Transfer of Property Act 1882 and the Registration Act 1908, contain no provisions that prohibit the ownership of properties by foreign individuals.

The Articles 13 & 42 of the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, which defines the “principles of ownership” and the “rights to property”, respectively, clarify that all the citizens of Bangladesh shall have the “right to acquire, hold, transfer or otherwise dispose of property”. However even the constitution does not provide any provision which specifically prevent a foreigner from owning land or any other property in Bangladesh.

Registration of land is compulsory under Section 17 of the Registration Act 1908. The instrument of transfer, unless it is a will, needs to be presented for the registration process within the next three months of its execution. The place for presenting the document for registration is in the office of the Sub-Registrar within whose Sub-district the whole or major portion of the property is situated. The presentation should be made by the person executing the document, a person claiming under him or an agent of the person executing the document

The first step of checking if your land is registered or not is to find the schedule of the land which includes particulars such as the corresponding District, Upazila, Mouza, Khatian, Dag No. etc. Then one must go to the Sub-registry office that has the territorial jurisdiction over the scheduled land and request a search report to find out whether there is any registered document regarding the said land or not. One can also go to the Assistant Commissioners Office to see if any documents have been submitted there for conducting a mutation on the land. This is important because the mutation procedure requires all the documents relating to the land, therefore would provide a definitive answer as to the question of whether the land has been registered or not.

The most basic two ways of procuring ownership of land in Bangladesh is done in the following two ways – firstly, through a registered instrument (by way of sale, will and gift among others) and secondly, by way of inheritance. As for ownerships through registered documents, information regarding who owns the property can be found in the corresponding Sub-registry office, since the name of the owner is supposed to be registered there. In case of ownership by way of inheritance however, the name of the owner may not be present but the name of his predecessors should be enumerated in detail.

Khatian basically translates to the “Record of Rights”. They are prepared through land surveys to determine the possession and ownership of land. Each Upazilla is divided into multiple plots called Mouza. Khatians are then prepared to divide further plots out of the Mouza to make more precise assessment of who possesses which plot.

Namraji refers to the mutation of the Record of Rights (Khatians) where the name of the new owner is updated over the previous one. Namjari or Mutation is essential to prove ones title to a property. Other than that, it is also important to create a holding for the purposes of paying ground rent in the name of the new owner.