KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all deputy commissioners in Sindh to take action against encroachers of government lands and pursue such cases in the anti-encroachment tribunals.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed issued the directive after senior member Board of Revenue (BoR) Shamsuddin Soomro made a statement in court that there were encroachments raised on government lands but DCs were reluctant to get themselves involved in such matter as they were required to attend hearings in anti-encroachment tribunals.

The bench asked Mr Soomro to ensure that the encroached lands were retrieved and submit in court a report on DCs’ action in this regard at the next hearing.

BoR official says DCs not taking action to avoid attendance in tribunals

Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed are the other members of the bench.

When the bench took up the matter of computerisation of revenue records, Mr Soomro contended that about 95 per cent work had been completed in Sindh and the updated record was available on the revenue board’s website. He informed the court that 29 service centres at district level had been set up and people could access the website to check status of their lands. He disclosed that around 250,000 suspected entries were found in the record and 437 of them had been referred to the commissioners concerned for necessary action.

The bench directed him to also refer the remaining entries to the commissioners concerned immediately. They must decide the same on a priority basis, it said.It noted that the report filed by the BoR mentioned the lands retrieved so far but a major part of government lands was still under encroachment.

It also noted that the BoR had not provided details of encroached lands in Karachi division as well as the rest of the province. It asked Mr Soomro to submit a detailed report in this regard and mention the measures being taken to retrieve such lands at the next hearing.

The KPK revenue board also submitted a report on encroached lands in that province. A revenue official assured the bench that the land records of seven districts would be computerised by the end of this year and that of the remaining 12 districts till June next year.

He maintained that the process was delayed due to Covid-19 situation. He stated that the work pertaining to the lands in the newly-merged districts would be started once the process of settlement of these lands was completed.

The bench directed the KPK revenue authorities to ensure that all land record was completed expeditiously and the issue of settlement of lands in the newly-merged district was also completed by the end of this year.

Regarding the report submitted by the Balochistan revenue authorities, the bench observed that it was almost similar to the report they had submitted in June. It directed them to make efforts for completion of settlement process and computerisation of the record by the end of this year.

It also sought progress reports from the KPK and Balochistan revenue authorities at the next hearing.

The apex court had in 2012 ordered all provinces to computerise their respective land records.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2021