Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that Revenue Department has no power whatsoever to grant lease of 99 years under any law. A three-member bench of SC headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah gave this ruling in a case pertaining to allotment of an amenity plot for construction of building adjacent to an amusement park on Rashid Minhas Road, Karachi.
According to a written order of the bench, Advocate General Sindh informed the court that he will obtain necessary instructions from Member Land Utilization with complete record pertaining to the land in question. The order noted that Revenue Department has no power whatsoever to grant lease of 99 years under any law and further the very grant of purported lease to by the Revenue Department is contrary to the order dated 28.11.2012 passed by a five-member bench of this apex court in Suo Moto Case No. 16 of 2011, by which the Revenue Department was prohibited from making any mutation, allotment, transfer or conversion of State's land or keeping any transaction or entries in record of rights.
Also, it was further observed that any such mutation of the state land in record of rights would be deemed to be a nullity and exposed the Deputy Commissioner/DCO of the relevant district/case to contempt proceedings. The order stated that official of Evacuee Trust Board, present in the hearing also stated that Evacuee Trust Board shall also file a report concerning this land. Horticulture Society of Pakistan was not represented nor was anyone in attendance on its behalf, the order observed.
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