A legal notice has been issued to recover medals, awards, manuscripts and personal belongings of late eminent playwright Selim Al Deen for preserving those in a museum dedicated to him in Feni, lawyers said on Thursday.
The notice was served by Supreme Court lawyer Shihab Uddin Khan, also a former Jahangirnagar University student, on behalf of Selim鈥檚 nephew Salah Uddin Shuvro, also vice-president of the Selim Al Deen Centre, which runs the museum in the playwright鈥檚 birthplace in Feni.
Recipients of the legal notice include stage and film director Nasir Uddin Yousuff Bachchu, along with Kamrul Hasan, Abdus Salam and Nasrin Sultana Bilkis.
In the notice, the lawyer said that Selim Al Deen, revered as 鈥楴atyacharya鈥� for his contributions to Bangladeshi theatre, was a playwright, researcher and director of international standing.
He founded the drama and dramatics department at Jahangirnagar University and received some of the nation鈥檚 highest honours, including the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1984, the National Film Award in 1994, the Ekushey Padak in 2007, and the Independence Award in 2024.
According to the notice, the late playwright鈥檚 medals, awards, scripts and other memorabilia are national cultural assets under article 23 of the constitution which obliges the state to preserve cultural heritage.
It alleged that the four recipients of the notice, who had been close associates of Selim Al Deen, kept his awards and manuscripts in their possession instead of handing them over for preservation and that the condition of items were deteriorating without proper care.
As a result, admirers, researchers and students have been deprived of access to his legacy, it said.
The Selim Al Deen Centre, which has been running the museum in Feni since 2009, has become a regular site for fans and researchers, but visitors have not been able to see his original awards and manuscripts, the notice added.
The recipients have been asked to return the items within 15 days to the Selim Al Deen Centre.
Failure to do so may lead to a writ petition with the High Court and further legal steps, the lawyer said.
Copies of the notice were also sent to the cultural affairs ministry secretary and the Department of Archaeology director general, seeking their intervention.
Born on August 18, 1949, at Senerkhil in Feni, Selim Al Deen joined the JU as a lecturer at the Bangla department in 1974. He died on January 14, 2008.
