HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, restored the original status of 282 acres of agricultural land in Mirpurkhas in revenue record and observed that subsequent entry in the record be deleted and if any structure was found on the land in question, it be demolished within two weeks. The entire land be handed over to the department concerned, it ordered.

The judgement was given by a two-judge division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui. Justice Mohammad Faisal Kamal Alam was the other judge.

The order said that a report in this regard be submitted by the Sindh chief secretary to the court through the member inspection team-II (MIT-II).

The order was passed on a petition filed by civil society activists Masood Ahmed Wassan, Wajid Hussain Leghari, Sher Mohammad and Taj Mohammad Rind through Advocate Ali Palh. The bench heard the petition between March 4 and 12.

According to the petitioners, the Sindh Horticulture Research Institute (SHRI) is spread over the 282-acre piece of land in Hussain Bux Mari taluka. Officials of the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Township (SMBBT), Board of Revenue, revenue department and others started cutting down around 100 mango trees grown over 72 acres, which were part of the institute’s land.

‘Any structures, if raised on the 282-acre land, be demolished’

They submitted in court that in 2011, a summary was approved by the then chief minister for allotment of plots to the poor in Mirpurkhas in this township and an area of 100 acres was leased out in favour of such allotment free of cost. They said objection by the agriculture department was not considered in the summary.

They asked the court to declare that an agriculture farm could not be used for any purpose other than agriculture and that the grant/allotment of land for residential housing scheme was illegal and against relevant directives of the apex court.

Respondents SMBBT project director and chief executive filed their comments to defend government’s action on the ground that since there was no research work going on, they thought that the land was more suited for desired residential scheme instead of steering research work.

The director general of agriculture research department also provided details along with a summary report.

The court noted that the piece of land out of which the subject 78-13 acres of land was carved out actually comprised the 282 acres of land which was attached with agriculture research department. It said that the SHRI was established for research purpose and such entry stood by the name of ‘Government Seeds Farm’ in revenue record.

It observed that the land utilisation department examined the case and was of the view that agriculture-based research work had no potential and scope and instead the land be utilised for a concrete structure; that’s how the land utilisation department, after some procedure, reserved the 78-13 acres of land for the SMBBT.

The court noted that the two summaries which were available on record, however, did not specifically show that they were approved by CM.

After discussing relevant record, the bench ruled that the entire 282 acres of land must be restored to its original status as research-based agriculture land with agriculture department as “Government Seeds Farm”.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2020