DHA Quetta: Supreme Court suspends BHC verdict
From Our Correspondent :
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) suspended the Balochistan High Court (BHC) verdict wherein some clauses of the Defense Housing Authority (DHA) Quetta act 2015 were declared unconstitutional.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justices Umar Ata Bandial, Qazi Amin Ahmed and Mazahir Hussain Naqvi granted leave to appeal against the BHC judgment. A full court of BHC had declared some versions of the DHA act 2015 illegal and unconstitutional on December 17, 2020.
Article 24 permitted DHA for the acquisition of property: Makhdoom Ali Khan
Makhdoom Ali Khan, senior advocate appearing for the petitioner DHA Quetta, submitted that Article 24 of the Constitution permitted the acquisition of property for a public purpose.
The DHA was acting in the public interest. All allotments were made to members of the public and by ballot, he maintained.
The advocate submitted that the BHC had itself acknowledged that the society was working in the interest of the people and many other societies were doing poor quality work.
In 22 pages judgment, the BHC had termed some articles in violation of the constitution
In its 22 pages detailed judgment, the bench termed some articles of the act in violation of the 1973 constitution and declared them null and illegal. The bench mentioned that only provincial and federal governments have the mandate to acquire land.
He maintained that the statute merely authorized the DHA to exercise municipal functions and develop master plans in areas that had been procured, purchased, leased, or acquired by it. The BHC had not appreciated this aspect of the case.
Developing master plans for or performing municipal functions in lands that were those of the DHA was only proper and there was nothing unconstitutional about it, he argued.
The counsel submitted that the major premise of the full-court judgment was that the DHA Act 2015 was in conflict with the Land Acquisition Act.
DHA Quetta: Supreme Court suspends BHC verdict
