HYDERABAD, April 16: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Monday issued pre-admission notices to the secretary of water and power, chairman of Water and Power Development Authority, chief executive of National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), chief executive of Hesco, project director of NTDC and executive engineer of NTDC.

The notices were issued on a constitutional petition filed by the University of Sindh seeking payment of Rs384.896 million and 10 per cent markup per annum as compensation for installation of electric towers on the university's land without its permission.

The petitioner represented by Advocate Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada said that the university owned 8,500 acres of university township scheme in Deh Moorho Jabal and Deh Sonwalhar of Kotri taluka.

In 1996, the Sindh government acquired 274-32 acres of township land for the construction of a bypass and the additional district judge of Kotri through a decree dated Dec 10, 1996 fixed compensation value of land at Rs484,000 per acre plus six per cent interest from the date of issuance of first notification to the date of final payment of compensation.

The NTDC without seeking any no-objection certificate installed electric towers of 220 KV/Line, 132 KV, 500 KV and 11 KV on the university’s land in Deh Sonwalhar and Moorho Jabal of Kotri taluka and occupied 441-32 acres of land of township without payment of compensation.

The petitioner said that the prevailing market value of land located close to the university township was abut Rs650,000 per acre and township land was valued at Rs22 per square feet but the university syndicate fixed the land’s price at Rs20 per sq.ft and valuation was made accordingly.

By occupying 441-432 acres of university township land the respondents made it highly dangerous for people living nearby, endangered thousands of students and staff and violated fundamental rights of petitioners under Article 9 of Constitution.

The petitioner said that respondents were making billions of rupees as profit from their monopoly business of sale, purchase, generation and transmission of electricity and they were bound to pay compensation for land.

The respondents violated Article 24 of Constitution as they neither acquired land in accordance with law nor settled and paid compensation of land, said the petitioner.

The university issued a legal notice dated Nov 20, 2006 to the respondents directing them to pay compensation to the petitioner at the market rate of Rs384,896,160 with markup of 10 per cent per annum from date of occupation to the date of payment but they neither paid any compensation nor bothered to give any response to the notice.

The petitioner prayed the court to declare that respondents were liable to pay compensation to the petitioners at the prevailing rate of Rs20 per sq ft for the land they occupied to install electric towers and the area falling under high tension electric lines passing through the petitioner's land.

The petitioner also prayed that the respondents should be directed to pay interest at the rate of Rs10 percent per annum on total value of land from the date of occupation to the date of payment failing which the respondents might be directed to remove their transmission lines from the petitioner’s land.