Dadocha Dam case: SC validates notification of land acquisition

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Tuesday validated the notification issued for acquisition of land for the Dadocha Dam but held that the compensation to landowners be determined afresh.

A three-member bench of the apex court — headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umer Ata Bandial — allowed the appeal of commissioner Rawalpindi against the judgment passed by the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, setting aside the notification for acquisition of land.

The other members of the bench were Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Ayesha A Malik. The court had heard the case last year in February.

Some 20 people, who own the land the government intends to acquire, had filed a petition with the high court demanding compensation as per the market rate. The petitioners maintained that the indemnity was unrealistic.

The High Court, after accepting the petitions of landowners, set aside the notification of the Punjab government for acquisition of land. Later, commissioner Rawalpindi and others moved the SC against the high court judgment.

“We convert these petitions into appeals and partly allow the same by holding that the preliminary notification, the addendum notification and the urgency notification were validly issued and shall remain operative,” says the judgment authored by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah.

However, the award was set aside with direction to the petitioners to determine the compensation of the acquired land afresh.

The court held that while determining compensation and announcing the award afresh, other matters/factors prescribed under the law for determining the compensation, including the potential value of the land and escalation in prices of the land from the date of publication of addendum notification to the date of announcing the new award, shall also be considered and taken into account.

The court found that though the preliminary notification, the addendum notification and the urgency notification were validly issued in the present case, the award was not passed in accordance with the law.

“We are cognizant of the legal position that interference on the matter of determination of fair compensation is not ordinarily warranted under the judicial review jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution and such matter is best decided by a civil court in its reference jurisdiction under Section 18 of the Act after recording the respective evidence of the parties.”

The court held that where the acquisition authorities under the Act had misdirected themselves on a point of law, which did not require any factual determination, the High Court must intervene to correct the legal error and set the course of law right.

In the present case, the court held that it was an admitted position that assessment of the market value of the acquired land was made by the DPAC as per the date of the preliminary notification instead of the date of the addendum notification, which was a clear legal error.

“The award was made passed on the basis of the said legally wrong assessment, and thus suffered from the same legal error,” says the judgment adding that the award is thus found to have been passed without lawful authority and of no legal effect in terms of Article 199(1)(a)(ii) of the Constitution.

Briefly, the facts of the case are that the Executive Engineer, Small Dams Division, Islamabad, requested for acquisition of land in Rawalpindi district for construction of Dadocha Dam.

A preliminary notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (“Act”) was issued on 02.11.2010, published in the official gazette on 03.11.2010, for acquiring land measuring 7,977 Kanals and 10 Marlas in Rawalpindi Tehsil (“Preliminary Notification”). After publication of the Preliminary notification, the District Price Assessment Committee, Rawalpindi, in its meeting held on 17.9.2011, fixed the market value of the land to be between Rs60,000 to Rs1,00,000 per Kanal.

For various reasons, no further steps were taken by the petitioners in relation to the acquisition until issuance of an addendum to the preliminary notification on 12.3.2020, published in the official gazette on 13.3.2020, whereby the land to be acquired was increased from 7,977 Kanals and 10 Marlas to 14,720 Kanals and 17 Marlas (“Addendum Notification”).