Lahore: Declaring Section 4 of the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 illegal and contrary to the Constitution, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday quashed the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project (RRUDP).
The LHC announced the verdict on petitions filed against the project by advocates Sheraz Zaka, Ahmed Rafe Alam and others on behalf of the farmers. The petitions had challenged the manner and manner of land acquisition proceedings by RUDA for RRUDP.
Section 4 of the RUDA (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 is contrary to Article 144 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the court ruled.
The court remarked, “Agriculture land can be acquired only if there is proper legal framework for the same but for RRUDP the land has been acquired through contravention of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.”
"Lahore and Sheikhupura failed to comply with the law in land acquisition," the court said.
Announcing the decision, the LHC said that since the master plan of the RRUDP is the Aadhaar document, all the schemes should be covered under the master plan as per law.
"Therefore, any scheme that works [without being included in] the master plan is illegal," the court ruled.
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The petitioners had questioned the legality of forced acquisition of land for commercial purposes under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, while some of them had questioned the validity of the environmental impact assessment of the project prepared by an unregistered consultant.
The counsel for the petitioners objected that if the project is devoid of environmental impact assessment, then how can it be treated as of public interest. He argued that the project would deprive the farmers of their valuable land and that such deprivation is a violation of fundamental rights.
On this, the LHC had stayed the land acquisition process for the project for not meeting the legal requirements and environmental laws.
However, the Punjab government was of the view that since the RUDA (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 was passed to cover legal loopholes, the stay orders passed by the court and the petitions against the project were fruitless.