A Supreme Court bench here on Thursday suspended an order of the Lahore High Court (LHC), which had required Punjab government to allot substitute land to 89 affectees of Military Estate Bahawalpur. Earlier, a law officer said the LHC had directed the Board of Revenue (BoR) to take up representations of the affectees and decide the matter of the compensation.
However, he said, before any decision on the representations, the LHC heard petitions of the affectees afresh and ordered the government to allot 12.5 acre to each affectee as compensation against acquisition of their land. The law officer stated that the land was acquired in 1993 for defence purposes. He said the compensation against the land acquisition could be made in the shape of money only. He said the Punjab Land Acquisition Act did not allow allotment of substitute land as compensation against acquiring of land.
Asked by the bench, Punjab government's lawyer failed to give a satisfactory answer about the purpose behind acquisition of the affectees' land in Bahawalpur. The lawyer pointed out the notification mentioned that the land was acquired for "defence purposes". The bench, however, suspended the LHC order and directed the registrar's office to consolidate all petitions regarding the land of Military Estate Bahawalpur.
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