The Ravi Urban Development Project was deemed unlawful by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday, and the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) was ordered to return money it had received for the project to the Punjab government.
Justice Shahid Karim stated RUDA failed to establish a master plan in compliance with the law in his ruling, which was reserved on December 21 last year. He went on to say that any project without a master plan is unconstitutional.
Section 4 of the RUDA Amendment Ordinance, according to the LHC court, breached Article 144, and the ordinance itself was invalid. According to the judge, agricultural land can only be acquired once suitable legal mechanisms are in place.
The petitioners’ counsel had stated during the previous hearing, following which the verdict was reserved, that sections 29-31 of the RUDA Act pertaining to property acquisition were in violation of Article 24 of the Constitution. He claimed that RUDA and the Lahore Development Authority were not comparable (LDA).
Waqar A Sheikh, an LDA lawyer, maintained that the LDA chairperson was Punjab’s chief minister. “Public representation is also represented on the LDA board, but it has been overlooked in RUDA,” he added.
The powers of public representatives were handed to non-elected representatives in RUDA, according to the lawyer, who also stated that the RUDA Act violated democratic ideals.
The court was informed by RUDA’s counsel that the provincial parliament had approved the RUDA budget and that all conditions had been met before the project began.
Even though Lahore was one of the most polluted cities in the world, petitioners’ counsel informed the court that agricultural land was being acquired to create the Ravi metropolis.
In addition, the petitioners urged that the court consider the pollution element when reviewing the lawsuit against RUDA. They also urged the court to order the respondents to comply with their legal obligations and to conduct smog-prevention measures.
The LHC knocked down the RUDA ordinance because it was “offensive to the environment law,” according to Amicus Curiae Aaminah Qadir in a tweet following the verdict.
#LHC has declared that govt should pass laws to ensure agricultural lands of farmers are not acquired depriving them of their right to property. Current #RUDA process of land acquisition declared ultra vires and offensive to environment law.
— Aaminah Qadir (@AaminahQ) January 25, 2022
“LHC has declared that govt should pass laws to ensure agricultural lands of farmers are not acquired depriving them of their right to property. Current #RUDA process of land acquisition declared ultra vires and offensive to environment law,” she tweeted.
