KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday ruled that the land of Scheme 36 belonged to the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and the provincial government could not make any claim about it and directed the authorities to ensure that no encroachment would be taken place on such land in the shape of dummy goths or fake adverse claims.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam deplored that the officials of provincial government were in league with those who brought false ownership claims in courts with the assistance of such officials.

It further directed the provincial and local authorities to coordinate with each other to retrieve the land of amenity plots located in Scheme-36, block 10, Gulistan-e-Jauhar as per the lay-out and master plan and asked the KDA that the same must not be misused by any person.

The bench in its judgement further said it had already been decided in earlier judgements that the entire Scheme 36 comprising 2,000 acres belonged to the KDA, which had allotted it to public at large and therefore, no adverse claim about the land in question by the Sindh government or any person other than the genuine/bona fide allottees of KDA can be accepted.

The bench passed these directives while disposing of two petitions — first one filed in 2014 against provincial authorities for attempting to convert Block 10 of Scheme 36 into Chishti Nagar Goth and encroachments on amenity plots and the second one was filed by a man in 2016 who claimed to be the headman of Chishti Nagar located in Scheme 36 seeking re-survey of the goth/village in question.

It allowed the first petition and dismissed the second for being a classic example of abuse of process of the court and imposed a cost of Rs100,000 on petitioner Rind.

The bench observed that the petitioner filed the plea by adopting deceptive tactics and concealment of facts and his acts were fraudulent and collusive with officials of provincial government as they took five years to file comments and brought the facts on record.

“An honest and fair approach on the part of the officials of provincial government, who were made respondents in these petitions, should have been taken to place on record the earlier orders of SHC and apex court in respect of scheme 36, but the officials kept quiet and attempted to drag the litigation so also the genuine grievances of the first petition,” it added.

The bench directed its office to make a caution against those who attempted to abuse the process of court by filing multiple litigations on identical issues which were already determined through judicial pronouncement and asked the registrar to take concrete steps in this regard.

It also ordered the registrar of SHC to file a report about the proposed mechanism for curtailing frivolous litigations within four weeks.

The bench said, in its earlier judgements the higher and superior judiciary had already laid down a mechanism for such disputes and had directed the chief secretary to constitute a team to undertake a comprehensive survey and if found the two goths/villages located within the territorial limits of Scheme-36, then the same would be an encroachment and liable to be removed.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2021