SHC vacates stay order in land acquisition for K-IV project

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday dismissed lawsuit of a construction company with regard to the acquisition of 110 acres of land for the purpose of K-IV bulk water supply project and vacated the interim stay order.

The plaintiff, Rukunuddin, had challenged the land acquisition of the 110 acres land in Gadap Town for the purpose of the K-IV project by submitting that it had already allotted the subject land to third party allottees.

The project director of K-IV submitted that the award for land acquisition had been passed as far back as April 30, 2018 while the suit was filed on May 4, 2018. The plaintiff’s counsel submitted that the award under the Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act did not exist at the time of filing of suit and it had been backdated whereas the defendants did not bring it on record for more than six years.

He submitted that the land allotted to third party could not be acquired besides the land was first proposed for 23 acres and later the impugned notice was issued for 110 acres on a mala fide basis.

The Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation and other defendants submitted that the plaintiff had filed objections to the notice of land acquisition and it was aware of the award that followed on April 30, 2018 but suppressed the same in filing of the suit.

A single bench of the SHC comprising Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry after hearing the arguments observed that the plaintiff had admittedly filed objections and appeared before the land acquisition officer on April 24, 2018, and the argument that the award was backdated did not appear to be plausible.

The high court observed that the plaintiff’s counsel had acknowledged that the plaintiff had yet to transfer the title to those allottees and the record of the right still reflected that the plaintiff was the real owner of the land.

The SHC observed that though the suit was filed in 2018 and none of the defendants filed a written statement for the longest time to disclose the award. The bench observed that the plaintiff may still approach the collector for making a reference against the award under the Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act by invoking the Section 14 of the Limitation Act 1908 to exclude the period spent before the court. The SHC dismissed the lawsuit as being impliedly barred by provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.